New World
by crazyxfan
Summary: No one wants to be alone in a world overrun by the dead. Especially, not with a baby. We were fine surviving on our own, but what happens when we are brought in by a group of strangers. Our troubles are just beginning. My name is Stacey Pierce and welcome to the new world.
1. Welcome to the New World

**Hello everyone! This is my first fanfiction, so please don't be too rough on me. This is starting at the beginning of season 4. I'm not really sure how long they were at the prison but I will be coming up with my own timeline. Sorry ahead of time, this chapter will be short. The ones following should be longer. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Chapter one: Welcome to the New World**

"Mama. Hey!"

I jerk awake as I hear my three year old daughter, Samantha, yelling at me to come and get her out of her play yard that she uses as a bed. I couldn't help but chuckle at her when I got out of bed. I looked out the barred windows and was blinded by the early morning light. The sun must have just come up.

"Hi baby girl. Is mama's baby awake already?" She looks up at me and gives me her biggest smile.

We've been here for about eight months already. Eight months of no running, no worrying about where our next meal will come from, and no fighting to make sure that no one—dead or alive—got their hands on my daughter. It was just us before we were brought to the prison. They didn't have many people then, but now there's more than I ever thought would survive. After my husband died protecting us when all of this started, I never thought that I would survive. But I did. He didn't. I survived for my daughter and for my husband and now, I have more people to keep fighting for. I have grown close to quite a few people here. Closer to Carol then anyone. She told me about losing her daughter. Something she's never told anyone that doesn't already know.

I quickly pull on my shoes and a shirt to go on over my tank top, and walk over to my daughter and pick her up and lift her in the air, lightly shaking her while she giggles.

"Ahhhh, flying baby!" I yell light enough for just her to hear. We don't want to disturb anyone from their sleep before we have breakfast made. That was my job, to help Carol cook and distribute the food and make sure we have enough water in the barrels for everyone. When we first arrived, things were tense around here. It took a while to get used to having people around. I wouldn't even let Beth hold Sam, even though I saw how good she was with Judith. Judith was Rick's daughter, Carl's sister. She was barely two weeks old when we got here. Anyways, things were tense and I everyone knew and understood why I was uncomfortable, so they gave me my space until I was ready. After being here for about a month, I had already had my job helping Carol, but I still had Sam attached at the hip. After Carol and I had finished cleaning up, we went to our cells which were in the same cell block. As we got to my cell, we heard voices coming from inside.

"This was very thoughtful of you, Daryl" Was that Rick? Daryl? What are they doing in my room? I nervously look at Carol because I did not know either men very well at the time and she gives me a reassuring grin, as I am sure that she knew that she could trust them.

"Woman's been alone since it started. Takin' care of that baby on 'er own." I slowly peeled the curtain separating my cell from the rest of the block and what I saw blew me away. I slowly let out the breath that I didn't realize I was holding. On the wall opposite my own bed, Daryl and Rick were setting up the play yard that Sam now sleeps in.

"Hello, Stacey. Daryl here thought that you and the baby would like to have your own beds. I hope that's okay?" Rick says in a gentle voice. I look at Daryl and he looks a little jittery as he looks from me and Sam to the play yard.

"Of course, thank you." I say.

"We'll leave you to get some rest then." He says as he lightly touches my shoulder before walking out of the room closely followed by Daryl who nods his good-bye. At that moment, I don't know if it was Rick's sincerity in his voice when he spoke or if it was Daryl bringing back the bed, but at that moment I decided that I needed to let go of my fear and trust a little more. I had tears pulling at my eyes, fighting to come out. I had forgotten all about Carol being in the room until she wrapped an arm around my shoulder to comfort me. Now, is the time. I turned to Carol and looked at her, tears still threatening to spill.

"Would you like to hold her while I get her stuff ready for bed?" Then, she smiled at me. "You sure you're ready?" I nodded. When Sam was out of my arms, I couldn't hold back anymore, the tears fell. I am the only one that has held her in a year, yet here she was being held by someone she barely knows and she doesn't even care. She just looked at Carol and started talking gibberish. It was then that my friendship with most of the occupants began.

Now, as I make my way to court that was set up outside for everyone to eat more comfortably, I am greeted by almost everyone.

When I reach the yard Carol is already getting stuff ready, so I set Sam in the high chair Daryl had also gotten her and not even an hour later we have breakfast ready for everyone. Now all that needed to be done was to keep it warm until we have made sure everyone eats.

As I give Samantha the food that I had cooled down for her, I hear Dr. S greet Daryl. I turn around and grin as Daryl greets him back and is then meet with greeting from everyone. He just looks back at them with a 'what the hell' look on his face.

"Smells good," he tells us as he grabs a bowl. "Just so you know, I liked you first," Carol clarifies while also grinning. "And I liked you second," I added. This made Carol chuckle.

"Stop. You know, Rick bought in a lot of 'em, too." He said.

"Not recently. Give the stranger sanctuary, keep them feed. You're gonna have to learn to live with the love."

"Right." He responded.

"I need to show you something. Stacey, you okay for a second?" She asks me.

"I got it."

"Patrick you wanna help?" Patrick was a boy about Carl's age.

Patrick jumps at the opportunity, "Yes, ma'am. Umm, Mr. Dixon. I just wanted to thank for bringing that deer back yesterday. It was a real treat, sir." Daryl glances at me and I just shake my head and cover my mouth to stifle the laugh. Then he looks to Carol who is smiling.

"I would be honored to shake your hand?" Patrick holds out his hand. I did not expect what happened next. Daryl stepped closer to him and proceeded to lick each and every finger, then making sure to use a firm grip, shook Patrick's hand. I turned my head the other way, silently laughing. As Daryl and Carol take off to look at the fences, I look at Patrick. "What?" he asks. "Nothing. Nothing at all." I continue laughing and go back to cutting up the deer.

While serving the food to everyone, I glanced over to where Daryl and Carol were, and I saw Daryl looking over here before he turned away. Carol looked at me and grinned before she started talking to Daryl again, who kept glancing this way. Then, Daryl lightly bumped her elbow and they both headed back this way. Daryl dropped off his bowl and said hey to Sam while roughing up her hair a little. She moved his hand away and attempted to say his name as he walked away. Daryl and Sam have become close after he bought the play yard back also. Although he says that he never had kids before, he is very good with Sam. Not what you would expect from a man that wears a leather jacket. She goes back to eating when she realizes that he isn't coming back to play with her. When Carol gets back around, she looks at me still grinning.

"So, are you gonna tell me what you two were talking about, or are you just gonna keep grinning like that?" She just shook her head and continued her work. "Okay, then do you have this while I Sam to Beth?"

"Mmhmm." Still not saying anything. As I round the corner and I see Beth with a pail of water talking with Zack, her boyfriend, and Daryl loading up the truck. Just as I get up close enough I hear Daryl say, "It's like a damn romance novel." As Beth passes, I hand Sam to her. "Awe come on, Daryl. Don't you feel the love," I giggled. "Yeah, little too much love."

"Daryl," I say waiting for him to look at me, "be careful, okay." He looked down then back at me and nods then continues getting the truck ready. I sigh and make my way back to help Carol clean up. When we are done with that, I decide to go help the fence clingers since Tyreese was going on the run with the others. Sam could use some time away from me anyway.

A few hours later, after I went back inside to take care of Sam, the group from the run came back one person short. Zack didn't make it. I could see how upset Daryl was at losing yet another person to this world. A world where we are never really safe. A world where the dead kill the living. Welcome to the new world.


	2. Infection Always Finds You

**Hi guy! I noticed that I forgot to do the disclaimer so here it is: I, in no way, own anything pertaining to** _ **The Walking Dead.**_

 **Chapter two: Infection Always Finds You**

There it was, the nightmare. They were everywhere. They were inside.

I left Samantha in the courtyard with Lizzie and Mika so that she could finish her breakfast. As I followed Carol into the infected cell block, I saw it. The dead tearing apart the living.

I stood frozen at the entrance as people were running into me to get out. Of course I fought them before, but this time, I got the picture of the infected piling on top of my husband as I shot him.

I was snapped out of my trance by a crossbow bolt killing the walker that had managed to make its way right in front of me. There were little spatters of blood on my face as I looked to Daryl, who was yelling at me to snap out of it and trying to reach Andy—one of the children in this cell block—about to get bitten.

I blinked a couple of times and pulling my giant pocket knife out. I ran up to the walker behind Andy and grabbed it by the hair to stab it in the side of the head while Daryl took out the one in front of him.

"Heads up!" Daryl yelled. I turned around just in time to stab a walker right through the chin and yanked it out so that it could fall forward.

I looked to where Andy was supposed to be so that I could take him to Karen, who had the children and others shut inside a cell. Daryl had already taken him to safety.

It didn't take too long to clear out the cell block. Once it was clear, I got the chance to look around. Every one of the dead was someone I knew, someone I was friends with. I looked up at Rick and the others that were trying to figure out what started the outbreak. They can stop it. I can't give up hope now.

I quietly left to get back to my daughter. By then Beth had taken her to our cell block. That's when I see Carl and Maggie supporting a limping Michonne.

"What happened? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just tripped coming back in." Michonne answered.

Then Carl glanced behind me and took off. I looked where he went and saw Rick was making his way over. "Hey, you might wanna stay back," he tried to warn Carl as he was running towards him. Carl wasn't going to listen.

"I didn't see you come out. Dad, I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I'm here. I'm fine but back away."

"I had to use one of the guns by the fence. I'm swear, Dad. I didn't want to."

Then Michonne spoke up, "I was coming back. I fell. They came out and helped me."

"Are you alright?" Michonne nods. "What happened in there?" Maggie asked both me and Rick. I looked to Rick, hoping that he found out what happened.

We all looked to watch a mother mourning her child as she walked by with it wrapped in a sheet. "Patrick got sick last night. It's some kind of flu. It most fast. We think he died and attacked the cell block." Then he looked down at Carl, "Look, I know he was your friend, and I'm sorry." He bent down to his level, "he was a good kid. We lost a lot of good people.

He gets back up and points at Maggie, "Glenn and your dad are okay but they were in there. You shouldn't get too close to anyone that's been exposed."

"That means you too, Stacey," he said pointing at me. "You should stay clear of Samantha until we find a way to fix this." My heart felt like it was falling out of my chest. Sam. Patrick.

"Rick, Sam has had direct contact with Patrick."

"We'll check on her," Maggie assures me. "Thank you," I say with as much sincerity in my voice as possible. God, I hope she's okay.

Then as Carl makes his way back to help Maggie with Michonne, Rick emphasizes, "Carl. All of you." Carl nods his understanding.

I turn to Rick with sad eyes and he looks a little distraught himself. "I guess I'll see if I can't clear up the fences a little. Will you come and tell me if anything happens?" I have to do something. I can't just stand around waiting to get sick. I'm worried about Sam. Since Patrick helped with handing out food, he was around her a lot.

"Of course," he says. As I start to head towards the fences, he stops me. "Stacey, everything's gonna be alright. I'm gonna do everything I can…we, we're going to do everything we can to make sure no one else dies. I promise." I just gave him a little smile, hopefully telling him that I believed him. Although truthfully, I didn't know if I believed that they could protect everyone from this.

A couple of hours later, I'm trying my best to keep the walkers from taking the gates, but there isn't enough manpower. I see Maggie making her way to the guard tower as the fences start bending over, "Maggie, I need some help over here!" She sees what's happening and runs to get more help.

When she gets back she has Rick, Daryl, Glenn, Sasha, and Tyreese. Everyone grab a weapon and starts stabbing. No matter how many we take on, the fence continues to cave. Then, I heard Maggie yell and looked to see that she lost her footing. As Glenn tries to check on her, she refuses the help. "Don't. We're supposed to stay away from each other." She was right. No contact with anyone that may have been exposed. Glenn was in that category. So was I. So was Rick. And Carol. And Daryl. More people to worry about.

"Are you seeing this?" Sasha yells. We all look at what she found and it was rats. Dead rats. Rats that looked like they were being fed to the walkers.

"Someone's feeding them!?"

Just then the fences begins to cave in even more. "It's coming down." Everyone was trying to hold it up. There was just too many.

I felt someone grab my arm and pull me back. It was Daryl. "Everyone get back, come on now."

"If the fence keeps bending in like that, those walkers are coming over it." Sasha says.

As I stand there watching them take over the fence, I hear Rick tell Daryl to get the truck.

I stay behind the fence with the others. We need to be ready to get more posts on the fence to support it. I watch as Rick uses the pigs as bait. Daryl is driving the truck. My heart feels like it is beating out of my chest. Just Rick and Daryl out there luring the walkers away. I knew they could take care of themselves but they were vulnerable.

The next day, even more people had gotten sick. Some of them didn't make it. To add to this mess, someone murdered Karen and David, the only other people that were sick yesterday. I was standing beside Carol where the bodies were found, listening to Tyreese and Rick.

"You found them like this?" Rick asked him. "I came to see Karen…and I saw the blood on the floor. Then I smelled them." He raises his voice a little, "Somebody dragged 'em out here and set 'em on fire. They killed 'em and set 'em in fire."

He stepped up to Rick, "You're a cop. You find whoever did this and you bring 'em to me. You understand? YOU BRING 'EM TO ME."

"We'll find out who…" Rick started but stopped when Daryl tried to pull Tyreese back some and Tyreese pulled away from him.

"You need me to say it again?" Tyreese said to Rick.

"No, no, no. I know what you're feeling. I've been there. You saw me there. It's dangerous.

Tyreese raised his voice even more, "Karen didn't deserve this." I was starting to get worried about Rick's safety. Tyreese looked like he was ready to get violent. "David didn't deserve it. Nobody does."

Daryl decided that he had enough so he went to grab Tyreese's arm again.

"Alright, that's enough. Let's…" Before Daryl could finish, Tyreese turns and slams him into the bars, "I ain't going nowhere till I find out who did this!" Me, Rick, Carol go to get Tyreese off of Daryl, but Daryl stops us.

"We're on the same side, man."

Rick tries to help, "Hey look. I know what you're going through. We've all lost someone. We know what you're going through right now, but you've gotta calm down." As he finishes he lightly touches Ty's back. Then, he turns on him, "You need to step the hell back!"

"She wouldn't want you being like this." Ty was done talking. He punches Rick square in the jaw. "Hey!" I yell trying to get his attention while Carol is yelling at him to stop. Daryl jumps behind him and pins his hands behind his back.

Rick takes that moment to finally get angry and he punches Tyreese right out of Daryl's arms. "No, no , no, Rick!" I ran up as close as I could without getting hit. "Rick stop!" Then Daryl easily moves me out of the way and grabs Rick's arm, telling him to stop. Rick is just yelling for him to let go.

When he gets Daryl off, he looks at his hands. They were full of Tyreese's blood. He let his anger get the best of him. I can see that it terrified him. When I tried to check on Tyreese's injures, he yelled at me.

"Back away."

"Tyreese, someone needs to look at your wounds."

"Not until I bury 'em. Not till I bury 'em."

I hear footsteps and see that Carol and Rick left. I looked at Daryl, who was watching my interaction with Tyreese closely. I didn't say anything, I just looked back at Ty and made my way back to the yard.

The next day, as the council was having their meeting, I decided to go check on Sam. When I got to c block, however, she wasn't there. Beth saw me when I walked in and the way she looked at me. Oh, no. Please, no.

"She's with Dr. S. She started sweating really bad and coughing." I felt the tightening in my chest. I grabbed it and started hyperventilating. "There wasn't any blood yet. I'm sure she'll be fine." She tried to comfort as she made me way over to help me.

"No. No, Beth. Stay away. I could have it, too." I had to make myself calm down. I was crying. My baby was sick. She was dying.

No, I won't lose her. I calmed down and left the cell block. I heard Beth ask where I was going, but I ignored her. I was going to save my little girl if it was the last thing I did.

As I neared the meeting room where the council meet, I heard Daryl say that he was going to put together a group for a run to a veterinary college.

"I'm coming, too," I say upon entering the room. Tears were still streaking my face. Carol looked at me worried, "What happened?"

"Sam has it." She stands up and walks over to me and wraps me in a tight hug.

"You sure you wanna do this?" Daryl ask. When Carol released me I looked at him. I could see the pain in his face. He loved her. I know he did. He may not express his feelings very well, but if you look close you can see it.

"I'm sure. I want to do everything I can to save her. I have to. Even if it means I have to leave her for a while."

"Alright, let's ready then."

Fifteen minutes later, I was in my cell getting what I needed for the trip. I grabbed my pack from under the bed. I don't even remember the last time I got this out. I opened it and pulled out something I haven't seen since we arrived at the prison. My husband's colt .45 revolver, still in the holster. It was rarely used because .45 ammo was so hard to find.

"Hey, you 'bout ready?" I jumped, startled. I don't know why it did. I would recognize that voice anywhere.

"Daryl, you scared the shit out of me." He looked at the gun in my hands. "That your husband's?"

"Yeah," I nodded. I didn't tell many people about losing him. Daryl, Carol, and Maggie are the only ones that know what I did.

"You gonna be alright out there?" Confused I asked, "What do you mean?"

"I saw the way you froze when d was taken over." I looked down. That hasn't happened in a long time. I don't blame him for second guessing whether I will be able to help out there.

"Hey," he called for my attention. "I know you can take care of yourself out there. Ya did it when it was just you an' a baby. I just wanna make sure you're gonna stay safe out there."

"Daryl…it's been a long time since I had to fight. I…I don't…I won't freeze up again. I was just reminded that we were never really, completely safe in here. Reminded that I will still need to know how to protect myself and those I care about." He was looking me in the eyes now. "I'm okay. It won't happen again. I promise."

"Alright, we got the car by the gate whenever you're ready."

"Okay, I'll be there in a sec." I smiled at him gently. When he was gone, I put the holster on my belt and grabbed my bag. I doubled checked to make sure I had my pocket knife and grabbed my 12-guage out of the corner. I made sure it was loaded and made my way to the car.

When I got there Michonne, Daryl, and Bob were already waiting. "This it?" I questioned. "No, I'm comin' along." Tyreese announced as he came up to me. This made me uncomfortable because last time I saw Tyreese he was unstable because he lost someone. I know he wasn't much better now than he was yesterday.

"Okay then, no point in wasting anymore time. Let's go," I stated in a not-so-nice way. I wanted him to know that I wasn't happy to be riding with him after the way he treated me.

During the ride, I was stuck sitting in the middle between Bob and Tyreese. All three of us just sat there in an uncomfortable silence. I was listening to Daryl talk to Michonne.

"Hey, I know you weren't runnin' off. The thing is, that trail went cold. You know that right?" He glanced at her and she just sat there glaring forward. "If it was ant different, I'd be right out there with ya." She just looked at him and went back to glaring forward.

Poor Michonne. Daryl told me what happened with the Governor. He said that he wouldn't doubt that the man would come back eventually. They were hoping that when that time came we would be ready. But first we need to fix the sick. Samantha.

God, this was so uncomfortable. I can't even sit flat on my ass. I thought chargers were supposed to be bigger than this.

"Would you hand me one of them CD's right there?"

As Michonne digs through the CD case, I start fidgeting. I know this wasn't any better for them, but come on.

Then I paused. Did everyone else hear that?

"Was that a voice?" Bob heard it. Daryl shushed him.

"…determined to survive…" Daryl was trying to find a better station.

"…keep alive."

At that moment I looked out the front windshield, "Daryl look out!"

Due to my awkward seating position I was thrown forward when Daryl tried to stop and maneuver around all of the walkers. Tyreese and Bob caught me before I went too far. They held me in place. When the car came to a stop, there they were. Thousands of walkers up ahead and now all around the car.

"Grab something," Daryl shouted. Everyone grabbed ahold of the safety handles while Bob and Tyreese still had my arms. Daryl shoved the car in reverse. There were too many, we were stuck.

"We're jammed up. Make a run for the gaps right there. You three, make a run for the woods, and you don't stop for nothin', you hear me?" He grabbed my arm. "You hear me?" I nodded, as did Bob. "Now!"

Bob got out and I followed him closely as he was shooting. I took out my gun to help clear the way to the woods. I went around him to catch up to Daryl when I heard him screaming for Ty. That's when Tyreese got out and just started killing them. He wasn't even trying to run.

Daryl and Michonne came up beside us and Daryl grabbed me and pulled me back.

"Come on."

We were running through the woods. There was more in there.

"Hold up." Daryl called us to a halt. What is he doing? Out of the woods we just came from came two walkers. We could take them. As Daryl raised his crossbow to take out one, one falls to the ground, dead.

Tyreese made it. Michonne took out the other as Daryl drags Ty to his feet.

We had no choice but to make camp that night. It's not like any of us will be sleeping but we can't do anything in the dark.

We all sat around a small camp fire. Tyreese sat a few feet away. He wasn't happy that about the delay. I may be angry with him but that doesn't mean I don't feel bad for him. I lost someone once too. We all have. We survived. He will too if he stops acting out.

Daryl took the first watch, while the rest of us tried to sleep. I couldn't. I just watched Daryl pace back and forth. My baby was sick. I was so close to losing the last bit of me I had left, yet I was holding on for that reason. She wasn't gone yet. I had to stay strong, for her.

I finally gave up on trying to sleep, so I sat up and starred into the fire.

"She's gonna be okay, ya know that right?" Daryl had stopped walking around and sat down beside me.

"Yeah, I know." My voice broke.

"We're gonna get that medicine tomorrow and we're gonna get it to 'er in time. We ain't losin' nobady else."

I lightly touched his arm and smiled.

"You should rest, Daryl. I'll take next watch."

I watch as he lays down and I think of the one thing that would probably make him upset if he ever knew it crossed my mind.

Sooner or later, infection always finds you.


	3. Hope Can Go A Long Way

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to** _ **The Walking Dead.**_

 **Chapter Three: Hope Can Go a Long Way**

We decided to get up and ready at the first sign of daylight. While Tyreese was getting cleaned up a bit, Michonne, Bob, Daryl, and I took a look at the map to see if we could find out where we were.

"This is Turner Creek, so Barnesville must be a few miles downstream," Michonne pointed out.

"Sound like our best shot at finding a new ride."

We all agree with Bob, and grabbed what little bit we had with us. Daryl walked around me to the edge of the bridge and called for Ty.

"Yo, Ty. Come on, let's go. Vamonos."

I led the way followed by Daryl and Michonne, while Bob hung back to wait on Tyreese.

About three miles in Daryl and Michonne had ended up beside me. In the middle of our trek, Daryl bends down and picks up a rock, inspecting it closely.

Michonne looks at him funny, "Is that Jasper?"

"Hm-mmm."

"It's a good color. Brings out your eyes." She looks at me and we both laugh a little.

He just continues inspecting ad cleaning the rock. "When Miss Richards went into A block, we were leaving. Asked me to keep a lookout. I'm gonna use it for her old man's marker."

He never ceases to amaze me. I just grin and watch him as he messes with the rock some more.

"You know all them back there?" Michonne is shocked.

"You stay in one place more than a couple of hours, you'd be surprised what you pick up."

"Especially when you're everyone's favorite person," I giggled. He just shot me a smile one-sided smile and continued walking. I followed after him, leaving Michonne to her thoughts.

It amazes me that I can still smile and joke at a time like this. Maybe I did believe what Daryl said last night. She'll be fine.

A few more miles, we made it to a small building. I couldn't tell what it was, as it was covered in vines. When we get closer, Daryl slows down a few feet away from the building.

Bob tries to see if he can see what Daryl does. "You see something?"

"Don't know. Maybe." And he proceeds to pull at some vines. There is a minivan. As Daryl gets inside and attempts to hotwire it, Tyreese and Bob clear the vines off.

I walk to the door and watch as Daryl hangs his head down. Damn it! It won't crank.

He looked up at me, "We gotta find us a new battery."

He get out of the van to make his way to the building. He looks closely at the cloudy window. When he is about to clean it, a walker starts beating on the glass before he even touches it.

This caused me to jump backwards and bump into Michonne.

"Sorry," I say.

She laughs harder than I have heard he laugh in a long time. Bob laughs a little also.

"Little jumpy, are we?" I glare at her and walk to the front of the building.

"Come on. Let's clear a path. See how many we got." Daryl suggests.

Everyone is hacking away at the vines and branches. This is not as easy as it looks.

When Ty gets rough, Daryl warns him, "Hey, man, take it easy. We don't know what we're dealin' with here."

Ty just ignores him and starts hitting even harder. Then he stops and is pulling really hard. I stopped what I was doing because I was squeezed between him and Michonne. I did not wanna be hit with that thing when he got it out. When he get his weapon unstuck, it has wire on it. Where did that some from.

I look at Daryl as I slowly move forward to help. He looks back at me and, distracted, is grabbed by a walker through the brush. I stop and get ready to help but Michonne, being the closest, cuts of its arm.

The arm falls to the ground, releasing Daryl.

The next thing I know Bob and Tyreese get grabbed. I run to Ty as Michonne runs to help Bob and right as I go to stab the walker in the head, I get grabbed by the side.

"Shit!" I was pulling as hard as I could. My knife was in the hand that the walker had and I was using my other hand to hold onto the walker's forehead, keeping it from biting me.

Daryl came up behind me and stab it. I fall as does Bob.

When Daryl helps me up, we all watch as Tyreese struggles with another walker. The difference is, he had ahold of the walker, not the other way round.

"Ty!" Daryl yells. "Let it go!"

Ty makes one final pull and he falls back with the walker on top. Daryl grabs it by the back of its head and its shirt and throws it off of him.

I take that moment to stab it before it can get back on its feet.

Talk about adrenaline rush. We were all panting.

Michonne turns to Tyreese, "Why the hell didn't you let go?" He doesn't say anything, just stands there.

I huff and shove past him. I turn around at the door, "Just because your angry doesn't give you the right to get anyone killed. Neither of us. That includes yourself." With that, I turn around and take out my gun and slowly lead the way inside.

I take the left and Daryl follows and takes the right. When I see it's all clear, I follow Daryl and Bob. Daryl leads us into a shop.

This is a mechanic's shop. Well, isn't that lucky.

Daryl walks to the other side and pulls a battery off of a shelf. He uses his knife to get the covers off so that he can inspect the cells.

"Cells look a little dry," Bob inputs.

"Nothin' some distilled water can't fix."

He led the way out of the shop back to the retail part. When he rounded a corner, he stopped and shined his flashlight at something.

I looked to see what it was. I gagged.

"That's puke," Daryl explains to Bob. "Those douchebags in the vines took themselves out, holding hands—kumbaya style."

I put my hand over my mouth. "That's disgusting. They could think of a better way to go than poisoning themselves with antifreeze. Ugh."

Bob apparently saw some positive, "They wanted to go out together, same as they lived. That make 'em douchebags?"

"It does if they could have gotten out," Daryl argued.

"Everybody makes it till they don't. People nowadays dominoes. What they did, maybe it's about not having to watch 'em fall."

"Right."

"Sorry Bob, I don't see any excuse to do this." I put in my two cents. I give him a serious look.

"Come on!" Daryl hollers, rushing us.

I make my way to where Daryl was and in front of him as a walker on the ground with a ceiling fan on top of him and an extension cord around his neck. Another one that gave up.

As I star at it, Daryl taps my arm, "You alright?" I looked up into his eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes. We haven't had a decent conversation in a while. It was rare that they did anyway as Daryl wasn't the one for long talks. When they weren't talking, he usually played with Samantha. He was very good with her and Judith. Oh, Samantha. I need to get to her, soon.

I gave him a reassuring grin, "Yeah."

I went outside to sit in the back of the van while Daryl got it running. Right as I sat down, Tyreese came around the corner of the van and sat down beside me. We just sat there for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry." Ty spoke softly. "I'm sorry for everything. For yellin' at you before, and for earlier. I'm not in my right mind. I know that. I just don't know what I would do if I got back and someone had done to Sasha what they did to Karen."

"Ty, I know you're angry and scared, okay. But so am I. I lost my husband at the very beginning. He gave his life to save me and our daughter. Before I left, I turned back and shot him. I wouldn't have been able live with myself if I knew that I left him to walk around as one of them. And now…" tears started to pool in my eyes. "...my…my daughter is sick. I came on this run because I wanted to fight for her…for everyone. I knew that if I stayed, the anger and pain would build even faster. I almost lost myself when I lost my husband. Then I saw my daughter. She was so sad but so innocent. She wouldn't be able to fend for herself if I lost it. That's what pushed me to keep going. Now…" I heard the hood shut and looked behind us through the front windshield. Daryl had just put out his cigarette and starred back at me. "…I have more than just my daughter to fight for." I continued whilst still looking at Daryl. Ty looked to see what I was looking at and when he did, Daryl moved on to help load the van. I turned my gaze on him, "That means you too, Ty."

"Thank you," he said. We both gave each other small smiles. He stood up and pulled me up into a crushing hug. "Thank you," he said again. I returned his hug and pushed out of his grip.

We all loaded in the van and were on our way.

We parked the van a few blocks away, just in case and went the rest of the way on foot.

"Looks like we're getting closer." Daryl mentions.

Ty, being the one holding the map, told up that it was just up ahead.

Once we reached the correct building, Daryl led the way as usual. Ty behind him and me right behind Ty, with Michonne and Bob taking up the rear.

Finally inside the right room. Daryl rushes us, "Alright, let's make this quick."

I was digging around the cabinets to see if there was anything use that we could take and I found some medical supplies used in case of an accident in the lab. I grabbed as much as I could.

As I throw my bag over my shoulder, I spot a huge organic chemistry book sitting on the counter. I loved chemistry. I was going to school for science education. I never got to take organic thanks to the end of the world. I'd like to bring it with me but I already had a full bag.

I move to help Michonne and Bob find the antibiotics. I knew the basics, anything ending in –cillin or –cin, just like Bob told Michonne.

Just as we were finishing up, Daryl and Tyreese enter the room with their bags full.

Bob turns to them. "How'd you do?"

"Bags, tubes, clamps, connectors. Everything on the list."

"What 'bout ya'll?" Daryl asks.

Bob looks back to double-check. "Yeah we got it all."

"Yeah, we're good." Michonne says as she too scans over everything a second time.

"Alright, let's roll." We all follow him out.

He leads us down the hallway. When he reaches the door we need to go through, he motioned for us to stop. He peeked around the corner and took off to the exit door at the end of the next hallway.

Michonne leads us through this door and we enter into a pitch black room. The only lights coming from our flashlights.

Before we reach the end Bob calls out that the door is broke.

"Ah, hold up." Daryl and Ty hurry to help. They block the door with the heaviest thing they can find, which so happens to be a tiny wooden desk. That won't hold long.

We continue making our way out. Just as I find the stairwell, a walker attacks Tyreese. Instead of asking for trouble like he has been, he kills it right away.

I turn to the exit and find that the door in chained. Right as I grab the chains, a bunch of walker hands reach through the doors.

"How many?" Daryl asks, shining his light at them.

"I can't tell."

A loud bang comes from the other end of the room. The walkers from the hallway broke through and were making their way towards us.

Tyreese readies his hammer, "We can take 'em."

"No! They're infected. Same as at the prison. We fire at 'em, get their blood on us, breathe it in. We didn't come all this way to get sick."

Bob was right. We came to save the sick.

"How do we know the ones in there aren't any different?"

"We don't." I tell him.

Daryl hands me his crossbow and breaks a leg off of one of the chairs.

"Well, it's gotta change sometime."

He uses the leg to break the chains on the door. "Ready?"

"Do it!" Ty commands as I step back so that the others can take care of them because I was still holding Daryl's crossbow.

Michonne and Bob easily took them down.

I handed Daryl back his crossbow and run up the stairs with Daryl on my heels.

When we make it to the next safest floor our exit is blocked.

"There's no way out!"

Daryl runs to the window. "Then we make one."

Tyreese grabs a fire extinguisher and screams for us to watch out as he throws it right through the thick windows.

Daryl helps Michonne and Tyreese through. I stop to shoot a walker that got too close. I notice Daryl waiting for me.

"Go! I'm right behind you!"

I follow him out the window. However, when I get onto the walkway, I don't expect to get shoved over the edge by a tumbling Bob.

I manage to catch the ledge but my legs are dangling freely. The walkers all rush to grab at my legs and they get ahold of Bob backpack. Bob attempts to hold on to me and the pack. Great, I'm about to be someone's afternoon snack.

"Bob, what are you doing!? Let it go!" The rapid movement of my legs to prevent them from being taken off is causing me so slowly lose my grip on the ledge.

It takes the rest of the group a while to notice that we fell. When they realized what was happening, Michonne and Daryl rush to help me up while Ty tries to get Bob to release his pack. What was so important he couldn't let go in order to safe my life.

Once I'm up everyone goes to help Bob. I crawled up as close as I could to the wall, I was still in shock from the fall.

They all try to get Bob to let go, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. He wasn't giving up that bag.

Finally, they are able to pull him up, bag and all. When he is lifted up the bag is thrown open.

Well, it's nice to know what was worth more than my life. Michonne bends down and puts an arm on my shoulder for comfort.

Daryl bent over and picked it up. It was a bottle of liquor. He looks from the bottle to me a couple of times. He was breathing heavily, he was angry. He turned to Bob.

"You got no meds in your bag? Just this? You were gonna let her fall for this!?" Bob just stood there. "You should have kept walkin' that day."

Bob speaks up when Daryl goes to throw the bottle. "Don't," he says and puts his hand on his gun. Daryl looks at me again, then he walks right up to Bob. Directly in his face. He takes Bob's gun and gets even closer to his face, grunting like an animal ready to kill. He grabs Bob by the shirt.

"Daryl, stop!" I finally broke out of my shock. I ran up to them and put my hand on Daryl's chest to push him back a little. "Just let it go." I looked at Bob, disgusted. "He's made his choice. There's nothing we can do about it. Let it go."

Daryl backs off some.

"I didn't wanna hurt nobody." Bob said with regret. "It was just for when it gets quiet."

With my hand still on his chest—just in case—Daryl shoved the bottle at him.

"You take one sip. When those meds get in our people, I'll beat your ass into the ground. You hear me?" I let my hand fall from his chest as he goes to leave. He stops. "You okay?" he directs at me.

I nodded. I glance at the bottle in Bob's hand. It hurts to know that he found a bottle of alcohol to be more valuable than me.

Daryl left and I followed right behind him. I didn't want to be around Bob right now.

When we made it back to the van, Michonne and Ty looked over the map. We couldn't go back the way we came.

I was laying down in the very back seat. I heard talking but I didn't know what was being said. I had too much on my mind to care.

If I had fallen off of that ledge, Sam would be alone. I know she would have Daryl and Carol and everyone at the prison, but she wouldn't have her mommy anymore. Then she would be fatherless and motherless. I snapped out of my thoughts when the van cranked. I sat up halfway and scooted to the window. The whole ride back was quiet.

It was dark by the time we got back. Before the van had time to stop Tyreese opened the sliding door and stepped out, me right behind him. "Sasha? How's Sasha?"

"And Sam," I beg as I climbed out.

Rick gives us an unsure look. "I don't know. I'm sorry." He sounded pained. Something must have happened while we were gone.

"Go on. Get in there. We got this." Daryl tells us.

"Thank you," I gently touched his arm as I pasted.

We ran inside, Tyreese to Sasha and me to Samantha. As I walked in there, I saw her. She looked so weak, my poor baby. Thankfully she hadn't reached the point that Sasha had. Sasha was connected to an IV because she had gotten so dehydrated. It looked like we got back just in time, even though we still lost a lot of people.

I didn't expect Samantha to be alive when I got back. We were gone for so long. But that just proves that hope can go a long way.


	4. The Running Never Stops

**Here is chapter four. Sorry it's so short compared to the last two, I wanted to make one chapter just on the governor's attack.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to** _ **The Walking Dead.**_

 **Chapter Four: The Running Never Stops**

It's been a couple of days since we got back with the medicine. Everyone seems to be improving well. The ones that had it the worst are still weak but the symptoms are starting to clear. Samantha still has a little cough but Hershel said that she was fine.

Now that we have enough people, we were able to move all of the bodies outside where Michonne and Hershel would take them into the woods to be burned. We wanted to make sure that no one would catch this flu again.

Rick had come to talk to me the night before while Sam was being given the antibiotics.

"Hey, Stacey, can I talk to you a minute?" He seemed hesitant.

I softly rubbed Samantha's forehead and kissed it. "Mommy will be right back, baby." It's not like she even knew I was leaving, she was asleep.

"Is everything okay?" I asked Rick as I followed him to a more private part of the prison.

"No. No, everything's not okay. Did you know that Carol killed Karen and David?"

What. "Why would she do that?"

"She would do anything to protect these people."

"Well, where is she? I have to talk to her." I rushed to move around him so that I could find her.

He grabbed my elbow firmly to stop me. "She's not here."

"What? What do you mean she's not here?" My heart dropped.

"We went on a run while ya'll were gone. I gave her enough supplies and she has a car. She'll make it." He didn't seem like he was too sure of that.

I crossed my arms. "Really? Is that what you're gonna tell Daryl? He cared about her too, you know."

"Tyreese would have tried to kill her. If I'd of let her stay, I wouldn't have been able to keep this place calm. She killed two of our own. And yes, that's what I'm gonna tell Daryl and I would appreciate it if you let me tell him." Was he asking me to let him do it? I was not going to be the one to face Daryl when he learns about this.

I looked away from him and said, "Good luck with that," and stormed off to the cell that Sam was in.

Infection isn't the only thing that takes away those that we love. Samantha was going to be so upset. She loved Carol. She even went to story time. And yes, I did know what Carol was teaching the kids. She only did it so they wouldn't end up like her little girl. I didn't mind. Sam was learning early. Rick is going to get a mouthful from Daryl when he tells him.

That was yesterday. I was making my way to my own cell to get Sam's favorite teddy—Daryl brought it back for her a couple of months ago—when I saw Rick talking to Daryl. I knew then that he had told him about Carol. Daryl was pacing angrily.

I watched their conversation take place for another minute or two before Daryl stalked down the stairs with Rick close behind.

Daryl stopped in front of me. Rick must have told him that I knew about it already. Was he mad at me? No. He didn't look mad. He was giving me the same look they all gave me when I told them about my husband. Sympathetically.

I felt that I needed to say something to ease both of our pain. "She's gonna be okay, Daryl." Did I believe that? I don't know.

"She would be even better if she was here." He looked at Rick pointedly, then stalked off to where ever he was headed.

Rick stopped by me also. "We're gonna go tell Ty. Did you wanna be there?"

Hell no! I just fixed my relationship with Tyreese, I don't want it ruined by any hateful words he may have about Carol. I won't blame him for being angry, but I still do not want to be there for that.

"No, Sam wanted her teddy bear."

I walked around him and went to my cell. I sat down on the bed for a moment. I remembered the first conversation Carol and I had about Daryl. It was just after Daryl brought back the teddy bear for Sam.

We had just got done cleaning up after dinner and Carol and I were in my cell playing with Samantha. We heard a light cough by the door and looked up to find a slightly nervous looking Daryl with a pack in his hand.

I stood up and walked over to him. "Hey, what's up? How'd the run go?"

"It, uh, it was good. I got somethin' for Sam."

"Again? Between you and Maggie and Glenn, this whole cell block is gonna be filled with baby toys." I smiled at him.

He smiled back. He actually smiled back. I mean, it wasn't a big one but it was a smile. It was so rare that it melted my heart just to see it.

"After what you two 'ave been through. You both deserve it. Not everyone can survive on their own with baby," He said as he opened his bag and pulled out a kind of rough looking teddy bear. It was nothing special really, just one of those plain brown bears. But it would be special to Sam.

He held it out to me.

"You told me she liked these, righ'?" He was right. I told him that five months ago.

"Yes, a while ago, though. I can't believe you remembered." He start getting fidgety.

"I been lookin' for one since. This is the first decent one I've found."

I looked in his eyes. "Thank you, Daryl. She'll love it."

I turned around and walked to Samantha. I bent down to her level and showed her the bear. Her eyes lit up so bright you could have sworn she had a tree of Christmas lights inside of them. She grabbed it and butchered a thank you before squeezing it to her chest and going to lay down on my bed. She was too tired to notice that Daryl was the one to bring the bear.

Still bent down, I turn my head to thank Daryl again, but he's already gone.

I stood up and walked to my bed to pick up Samantha. After I finished laying her in her bed, Carol spoke.

"He cares about you two, you know? And not the same way me or anyone else does."

"What are you talking about Carol? He's just helping. Glenn and Maggie bring stuff back too." Not as much as Daryl.

"You know I'm right. I know you care about him differently, too. And maybe one day both of you will listen to me and stop being so damned stubborn."

"Either way Carol, I'm not ready." I explain. My husband still holds my heart. Right now, Daryl is just pushing through the threshold.

"You're gonna have to be ready sometime, sweetie." Then she turned and left me to my thoughts.

I knew she was right. It is the end of the world. If I don't move on soon, there might not be anything left to move on to.

Now, as I sit on my bed and think back to that day, I think that maybe I'm ready to move on. Maybe.

I was broken from my thoughts when the entire prison shook and dust from the ceiling fell into my lap. What the hell.

I grabbed my pistol and walked out of my room. Everyone was looking around for the source of the explosion. Pushing past everyone, I made ran outside.

Some of the others were running out there as well. "Get back," Rick yelled as we ran towards the fence. There we saw it. The governor, the one that Michonne and Daryl were hunting, was outside the fence with a larger group and a tank. Where the hell did he get a tank?

"Rick," he calls. "Come down here. We need to talk."

Rick hesitates. "It's not up to me. There's a council now. They run this place." And most were standing right here.

"Is Hershel on the council?" He asked. He motioned towards a woman. She walked to one of their trucks and pulls someone out. Hershel. "What about Michonne? She on the council, too?"

"I don't make decisions anymore." Rick was feeling uneasy. We all knew what was coming.

"You're makin' the decisions today, Rick. Come down here. Let's have that talk." This wasn't going to end well.

Rick looked at Daryl for guidance. Daryl nodded at him. There was nothing Rick could but go down there. Rick put his hand on Carl's shoulder. "We can do this. All right?" He whispered faintly. He opened the gate and made his way down.

Daryl closes the gate behind him and walks back over to us.

"We can't take 'em all on. We go through the admin building, through the woods like we planned. We ain't got the numbers no more." Everyone was sick or dead. "When's the last time someone checked the stash on the bus?"

"Day before we hit the Big Spot," Sasha replied. "We were running low on rations then, we're even lower now."

"Yeah, we'll manage. Things go south, everybody heads for that bus. Let everybody know."

Tyreese cuts in, "What if everybody doesn't know when things go bad? How long do we wait?"

"As long as we can."

I wanted so badly to go get Sam, but I knew someone inside would take care of her. I needed to be out here helping in case things did get bad. There was nothing we could do now but watch and wait.

We couldn't hear what was being said but I could tell that it was not going well by Rick's stance.

I was watching the exchange closely when I felt something cold touch my arm. I looked to see Daryl handing me another weapon. If things went south six bullets from my pistol wouldn't do me much good. He gave me a strong, confident look and held the gun out to me again. I took it, aimed it through the fence, and waited.

Another minute passed before the governor took out his gun and took down two walkers. Great, just what we need, more walkers being drawn by the gunfire.

"We got to do something," Carl sighed.

"Your dad's got it." Daryl assured him.

"They're talking. We could kill the Governor right now." And get blown apart by a tank.

"From 50 yards?"

"I'm a good shot." Carl was so sure of himself. I wouldn't doubt that he could. If was if he should that was causing the doubt. "I could end this right now."

"Yeah, or you could start something else." Daryl argues. "You gotta trust 'im."

We continue to watch as Rick tries to talk the governor down. Now, he has Michonne's sword at Hershel's throat. Please, don't.

Before we know it, the governor raises the sword and slices right into Hershel.

It's started.

Beth and Maggie scream and we all open fire. This was it. We are fighting for our home. Fighting people for our home. Bullets are flying everywhere. Then the tank starts rolling. It demolishes the fences like it's nothing.

When I run out of ammo I run to the cell block that holds my baby.

"Everyone! Get to the bus!" I command as I run through the prison. I reach Samantha's cell and pick her up. She's still sleeping.

I carry her to the bus and hand her to Angela—another friend. I have to go find Lizzie and Mika. For Carol. When I get to the cell block where they're supposed to be, I don't see them. There's no one here. Not even Judith. Shit!

I run back outside looking around frantically for them. That's when I see it, the bus leaving. No. My baby was on there. At least I know she's out.

I see Daryl standing in front of the tank that was now on fire. He just shoot a bolt into the man that was driving it. I run up to him.

"Daryl! The bus, it's gone! Samantha was on it." I cried. "I was trying to find the rest of the kids."

He looks at me sadly. "We gotta go Stacey," he says softly as he shakes his head. "We gotta go."

I'm breathing heavily but I listen. There is nothing left here. We both take off into the woods.

The dead are everywhere. I have no bullets left in my pistol. We just keep running until we reach a clearing.

The running never stops.


	5. Stupid

**So, chapter four was kind of depressing, right? Sorry about that, but it is** _ **The Walking Dead,**_ **they tend to do that a lot. Anyway, here is chapter five. I'm tried to make this a little different because my character is 25 as opposed to Beth being 18. I love Beth but I tried to make my character more mature, I guess. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I hope you like it.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing related** _ **The Walking Dead.**_

 **Chapter Five: Stupid**

It was just me and Sam fending for ourselves. Well, more like me fending for us both, seeing as she's still a baby. I had to protect her from the cruelness that took over our world.

The road has been long and rough. We started in northern Mississippi and are making our way into Georgia. I'm not sure how long it's been, over a year maybe.

It was hard in the beginning. Sam didn't understand what it meant when I told her she needed to be quiet. We were on the move more often then. When she started to understand, we were able to stay in one place for at least one night. In the morning, we would leave again. Wandering aimlessly with no specific destination in mind.

We came to a stop as we reached the Georgia state line. Reaching inside my pack, I pulled out a bottle of water. The bottle was barely half full. Hopefully, we'll come across another source of water soon.

I opened the bottle and bent down to Sam, offering her the water. She put her lips on the rim of the bottle as I slowly tipped some into her mouth. I gave her a few more sips, then took a small one myself. I didn't need as much as she did.

I placed the bottle back in my bag and grabbed Sam's hand and continued walking.

Sam was too heavy to carry all of the time and she was too big for a carrier. So, I usually just held her hand as she walked and picked her up if we needed to run. Which happens more often than not.

It was starting to get dark when we found a street with small suburban houses.

I cleared one out with Samantha sticking as close to me as possible. In the morning we were on the move again.

The next two days, we had to have walked more than 50 miles. It was the middle of the day and we hadn't seen shelter since the night before. Another mile or so, we reached a camper. That would be a good place to stop and rest a minute.

I checked to make sure it was clear and took Sam inside. I set her down and gave her the books that I keep with us and some toys that weren't too noisy. I walked to the front of the camper and watched outside making sure nothing came around.

Then, I heard it. The loud roar of a motorcycle. And another from a truck. Someone was coming.

I heard the engines cut off outside, so I went to Samantha and told her it was time to be quiet as I carried her to the back of the camper and shut the sliding door. I moved to the middle and hide around a corner with my gun ready.

The door to the camper opens, I hear slow footfalls. Just as the tip of a crossbow comes into view, the person stops. Why did they stop? Oh, no. There, on the other side of the camper, on the small table, sat all of our supplies. How could I be so stupid?

It's now or never. I pulled the hammer back on my revolver and just as I round the corner to put my gun at their head, the person hits the gun out of my hands with their crossbow.

Before the person, who I recognize as a man, can aim his crossbow at me, I tackle him to the ground with as much strength as I could. (He was more than twice my size, muscularly.) The crossbow flies out of his hands and I pull out my knife and put it directly on his throat so that any movement would cause me to cut right through.

I'm right on top of him with my legs on either side of his hips. I glared the man down. He's kind of sexy, I'll admit. But that doesn't mean he's a good person. I've been in this predicament too many times. It's always the same. People aren't good anymore. They take what they want, and most of the time, whether they have to or not, they take it with force.

We're both breathing heavily. Before I can threaten the man, I hear the sound of another gun and look up. There is another smaller man pointing a gun at me.

"Get off him." He commands. The man under me put his hand up signaling the other man to stop.

"Glenn, wait! She's got a kid." I tense up. How did he know that? Oh, wait. I looked back at the table behind me. He saw the toys and baby books.

The man named Glenn lowers his gun. Just as he does, I reach beside me on the floor and grab mine. I jump off of the man under me and point my gun at him as he stands.

"Where's the kid?" The man asks.

"That's none of your business. Leave, now!" I tell him.

"Is the kid yours? It's alrigh'. We got a group not far from 'ere." He really thinks that I am going to let him take me and my daughter anywhere. "It's a prison. It's safe. All you need to do is answer some questions."

Questions? "And if I answer your questions correctly, what makes you think that I would trust you?"

Then Glenn spoke, "Because were not the bad guys. Were on the sa-."

He was interrupted by a cry coming from the back of the camper. "Mama!"

Crap. I turned and ran to her.

She must have heard the commotion and got scared because it didn't look like anything happened to her. I picked her up and held her close, trying to comfort her.

At the door, the two men and now a woman stood watching. Maybe a group wouldn't be so bad. I could try.

"What are the questions?" I direct at the man with the crossbow.

"How many walkers have you killed?"

"Walkers? That's what you call them? I don't know. Do you go around counting?" I answer sarcastically.

"How many people have you killed?" I froze. Do I tell them? Too many have tried to hurt us. So many that I haven't even been able to count.

"Uh…how bad is it if it's the same answer?" He just stared at me.

"Why?" He asks.

"Because they tried to kill us first and once because I couldn't leave him to turn."

They looked at each other for a second as if they were reading each other's minds. Then the man looked at me again and asked, "How long you been on your own?"

"Since the beginning." That was a simple answer. And they seemed satisfied with it.

"I'm Daryl," he said as he held out his hand for me to shake. "Stacey. And this is Sam." I say while shaking his hand.

"Come on. Ya'll can ride in the back of the truck." He motioned for us to follow. For once, since all of this shit started, I was ready to follow someone.

That was over eight months ago. Now it was just me and Daryl. We were sitting around the campfire that Daryl had started. No other survivors have shown up so far. Not Rick. Not Maggie. Not Glenn. If anyone has my baby, it's him. I saw Maggie helping him on the bus when I left to find the other kids. If he doesn't, hopefully someone else does.

I wanted to cry but I couldn't. I'm not even sure if she's alive. She could be. I won't lose hope until I find out. She is the only think that kept me going from the beginning.

I looked at Daryl. Normally, I would be able to tell what he was feeling, but not this time. His face and eyes were completely void of any emotion. It was like he didn't care. Didn't care that everyone we loved was gone or missing.

"Daryl, we should do something. We can't just sit here." He's still emotionless. "We aren't the only survivors. My baby is alive. Samantha is alive. She was on the bus." He still wasn't doing anything.

"Daryl, Rick and Michonne could be out there." He looked up at me this time. "Glenn. He was on the bus, too." Nothing. What was his problem?

"You're a hunter, right? You can track." Silence.

"Daryl, come on!" I'm getting tired of this.

"Fine. I'll do it myself!" I picked up his knife off of the ground. (Mine got stuck in a walker's skull when we were leaving the prison.) I have no idea how to track but if he isn't doing it, then I'll have to.

I took off. It didn't even matter if he followed me or not. He has never been so heartless. Not even when he first found me and Sam. Not even when I held a knife to his throat.

We're walking for a couple of hours. Daryl staying a few yards away, watching the ground for tracks. I'm glad he decided to help at least.

I came to a halt when I saw that Daryl had stopped. He was bent down moving leaves around. I walked over to see what he saw. Standing behind him, I saw small footprints imprinted in the dirt. There were other survivors.

"Could be Luke's. Or Molly's." I tell Daryl. "Whoever they are, they're alive."

"No, It means they were alive four or five hours ago," he corrected.

"Someone is alive, Daryl. I know it." I stalk off to see if I can follow their trail.

A few miles down the path, I see berries on the ground with the footprints. They must have stopped to eat.

I walk to the berry bush as Daryl points at some smeared tracks. "They picked up the pace right here. Got out in a hurry." He continues looking around. "Things went bad."

"You know, Daryl, a little faith never killed anybody."

"Yeah, faith. Faith ain't done shit for us. Sure as hell didn't do nothing for Hershel or your little girl." That hurt. Hershel was a great man. I can't believe he would say that about him. And then he adds Sam into the conversation. He must have realized what he said because he gave me an apologetic look. I'll take it.

I returned to the berry bush and started franticly picking berries. I will not cry. "Whoever it is. They'll be hungry when we find them." As I pick some more, I feel Daryl touch my arm. I don't want to look at him. Not after what he said. I looked at his hand. He was handing me his handkerchief. I took it and wrapped as many berries as I could.

Daryl went on to track the survivors. Slowly, I turned around and watched him. I know he didn't mean what he said. I hope he didn't. That isn't the Daryl that I have come to know. They Daryl that I have come to love. I was ready to tell him how I felt before the governor's attack. Now, I don't think that either of us are ready.

I followed him farther into the woods. We can across two dead walkers and Daryl stopped to inspect a small branch. "What is it?"

He looks back at me. "That ain't walker blood." Damn it. I step around the walkers looking around for more tracks.

"The trail keeps going. They fought 'em off."

Daryl shakes his head, "Nah. Got walker tracks all up and down here. At least a dozen of 'em." He too walks around looking for more tracks. Then I hear something, a twig snap. I pulled out Daryl's knife, waiting, listening.

All of a sudden, I'm grabbed from behind by a walker. I tried to escape its grip but I could shake it. It had grabbed both of my arms and was pulling me to its mouth. I barely see Daryl aiming his crossbow, then throwing it down and grabbing at his side for his knife. I have his knife, so he has nothing to do but grab the walker and throw him off of me. Putting all of his weight on the walker so that it can't get back up, Daryl looks at me and nods. I understand. He flips over so that the walker is on top of him and allows me to stab it in the head.

Puffing, Daryl gets up and retrieves his crossbow. "Come on," he beckons.

He leads us to some railroad tracks. My chest tightens. Beside the railroad tracks, there are a bunch of dead walker with three still feeding on the rest. I guess he was right.

He uses his crossbow to kill them. After he retrieves his bolts, he was walking down the railroad tracks.

I can't move. There's so much blood. He _was_ right. Faith never got us anywhere. At least not this time. I can't lose hope. My baby was out there somewhere, I just know it. I am going to find my baby girl.

I looked up at Daryl, who stopped to watch me. It was then that I let the tears fall. Sam wasn't here to see me. I knew Daryl didn't do the crying thing, but I could hold it in anymore. I watched him try to ignore it by walking away. He stopped and looked back at me. I knew he was worried about Sam, too. He just wouldn't show it.

It's been three days. Three days since the governor's attack. Three days since we lost our home. Here we were, running. Again.

Once we finally made it out of the woods, we came upon a car. Daryl protected me as I tried to see if it would start. No such luck. He looked back at me and nodded. We were too tired to run anymore, so we had to hide.

They were getting closer, I could hear their growls. Daryl ran to the trunk and opened it letting me hop in first. He squeezed in after me and used the shop rag he kept in his back pocket to hold the lid shut. The horde could smell us as they got closer to the car. Daryl and I both had our weapon ready for them.

We were like that for hours before the horde finally broke away. It was still dark, so we stayed inside the trunk.

I couldn't see him perfectly but I turned my gaze to Daryl. I don't think that I have ever sat this close to him before. We both had our legs straight out and our sides were touching. I was too afraid to move. Afraid that I would make too much noise and attract the horde back to us. So, we just sat there in silence until morning.

We grabbed some supplies and went on our way.

Later, I was setting up camp in the woods as Daryl went to hunt. We needed to eat.

When I had finished setting up, Daryl came back with a huge snake.

After we cooked it, we ate in silence. The only thing that could be heard was Daryl munching away.

I put down my piece of snake and looked around. All we had to drink was water. That's all we ever drink anymore. I was never a big fan. I wanted something else to drink. Maybe something that would numb the pain. Something that would make me forget that Sam wasn't with me.

"I need something to drink." I said to Daryl. He tossed me his bottle of water. "No, I mean something real. Alcohol. Something strong. So I can forget…at least…for a while." He just kept munching on that stupid snake. "Can we go find some?" Still no response. "Well then, enjoy your snake," I told him as I left camp.

I wasn't too far when I turned around to see if he was following. Nope. "Jackass."

Then I heard growling. I swing around to see four walkers headed my way. Crap. I hid behind a tree. I can't take that many without a gun. I bent down to pick up a rock and threw it to distract them. Thankfully, they all followed the sound. Snap.

I turned around fast holding up the knife, but stopped as I saw it was Daryl.

He had a hard stare. I guess he was mad that I wanted a drink. He can be angry all he wants so long as he helps me find something. Which is what I thought he was doing as I followed him, but he just led me straight back to camp.

"What the hell, Daryl! You can kiss my ass if you think that I'm staying out here!" I screamed at him.

He roughly grabbed my arm as I tried to storm away. "Hey! You had your fun."

I jerked my arm away, "That hurts, Daryl!"

It was my turn to be angry at him. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you even feel anything anymore? Have you ever? Oh, wait. That's right, everything's screwed, right? So we spend the rest of our lives staring into campfires and eating giant snakes in awkward silence? Not me, Daryl. Sam isn't here so I have to do something. I can take care of myself, I've done it before. I'm getting that damn drink."

This time he did follow me. I lead the way through the woods when I ran across a country club. Yes! There should definitely be something here.

"There should be some in there, right?" Daryl just looked at me. We both looked towards the golf field and saw a smaller herd of walkers. "Come on."

When we got to the front doors there was a dead walker.

"Might be people inside."

I run up the steps and try to open the double doors. Damn. Locked. Looking behind us, the herd was getting closer. So we try the back door. Daryl steps in first to make sure it's clear. When he gives me the okay, I follow.

When I'm inside, I see how much of a mess this place is. There's debris and bodies all over the floor. Walkers are hanging from the ceiling.

Daryl and I both manage to find some flashlights and proceed to look around. I search the tables for any drink, but there is nothing left. As I'm inspecting the fancy silverware, I hear loud shuffling. I turn towards the noise, and there is Daryl, stuffing a bag full of money and jewelry. What is he doing? All that stuff would do is weigh him down.

"Why are you keepin' all that stuff?" He didn't say anything as he looked up at me with greedy eyes and continued stuffing the bag.

All of a sudden, there's banging at the door. The walkers must have caught up with us. Daryl grabs the bag of worthless crap and we continue to the other rooms of the club.

We make our way through to the kitchen. Almost everything was empty. I wonder if some broke in and made this mess. I find a small room with a tall shelf and on top of the shelf, behind some cans, is a tall bottle alcohol. Probably just cooking wine, but anything will do at this point.

I step over a dead walker and move to climb on the shelf. It's not very stable, so I have to be careful. Trying to be quiet, I slowly reach up and grab the bottle. Got it! I leave the tiny room and shine the flashlight on the bottle so that I can know what it is. But before I can read it, another walker grabs me from the side. I manage to shove it against the wall but I can't hold it forever. I do the only thing I can think of and hit it over the head with the bottle. It was still coming. It was pushing me now. I try using the rest of the glass to stab it in the head but the glass won't penetrate the skull. Finally, I throw down the glass and take out my knife and stab it.

As the walker falls, I see Daryl walking towards me. He saw that and didn't help?

"Thanks for the help," I pant.

"You said you could take care of yourself. You did." Jerk. The Daryl I knew wouldn't have sat back and let me fight a walker so close on my own. Whatever. I really need that drink now.

We made our way downstairs next.

The first room was a souvenir store. Oh, wow. Clean clothes. I looked around until I found the girls stuff. I quickly take off my nasty bloody shirt and replace it with a clean polo and a sweater which was really all they had.

When I was finished, I walked over to Daryl who was now sitting down, looking at something in front of him. I got closer and I saw it. Someone had defiles a woman's corpse. The top half of her body was on mannequin legs, she was in a bra and the same sweater I wore, and she had a string and paper around her neck reading "RICH BITCH". That was terrible. No one deserves this, no matter how much of a bitch they are.

I tried to take her down but she is too heavy. I look at Daryl, who is just watching me. "Help me get her down."

He shook his head. "It don't matter. She's dead."

"Don't say that, Daryl. It does matter." I tell him seriously. He actually looks a little guilty and grabs a sheet to cover her up instead.

We get back to searching the club and as we pass the hallway, a clock chimes. We ignored it, thinking that everything was fine. But when we got farther down the hall, the clock had attracted all of the walkers that were in the building. We ran all the way down the hallway to another room. Then instead of running some more, Daryl stops to fight. I don't know why but he does and all I do is stand there, watching.

When he is down to the last one, he grabs a golf club and continually beats it. He just beats it angrily until finally, he's had enough and he hits the head. The blood ends up all over me. Nauseous, I take off the sweater and leave him alone.

Around the corner is the dining area and bar. Bingo. I turn around and look at Daryl.

"I know you think this is stupid. I know it is too. But I can't take it anymore. I want to have faith and believe that Sam is still alive. That others are still alive. But the fact that I haven't found her yet makes it so painful, Daryl. You have no idea. I don't want to cry because if I do, that means that I have given up. I'm not giving up. So, you beat up on walkers if it makes you feel better. I need to do this." After my little speech, I get to searching again.

I rounded the bar and found it. Peach schnapps. As I grab it, the sound of glass breaking causes me to look up. Daryl broke a picture frame to get a piece of paper out.

"Did you have to break the glass?"

"No. You have your drink yet?"

"No. But I found peach schnapps. Shitty drink but that's all that's left so…" I unscrew the top and hold the bottle by the neck. I never drank after I had Sam. I always thought that I would be considered a bad mother if I did. Daryl must have seen me hesitate because he comes over and jerks the bottle out of my hand and smashes it.

"Hey!"

"That stuff ain't gonna do nothing. You need something stronger than tha' if you wanna forget. Come on," he says and opens the door leading outside.

I follow Daryl all the way to a cabin in the woods. That's not scary at all.

"Found this place with Michonne." That must have been when they were still looking for the Governor.

He leads the way to a shed with a moonshine still. I've never had moonshine. Daryl handed me a big case of it and I took it inside the cabin. When Daryl gave me the okay I set the moonshine down on the table. Looking around, this place is a disaster, just like most everywhere else.

Daryl blows in a cup and pours some moonshine then sets it in front of me. "That's what you need righ' there."

Just what I need. I pick up the glass and take a small sip. I barely take the glass away from my lips before downing the rest. I could feel the burn in the throat. It hurt like hell but it felt numb at the same time. This would definitely work.

Still taking small sips, from the original jar now, I scanned the cabin. Beside the recliner was a bra stand, I guess. I have no idea what the hell it was.

"Who would go to a store and walk out with this?" I ask Daryl.

"My dad, that's who. Oh, he's a dumbass. He'd set those up on top of the TV set, use 'em as target practice."

"In the house?" That's not safe.

"It was just a bunch of junk anyway. That's how I knew what this place was. That shed out there, my dad had a place just like this." He points at things as he describes them. "You got your dumpster chair. That's for sittin' in and your drawers all summer drinkin'. Got your fancy buckets. That's for spittin' chaw in after your old lady tells you to stop smoking." Gross. He holds out a newspaper. "You got your Internet."

Before he can continue, we hear a walker outside. Daryl looks out the window. "It's just one of 'em."

"Should we take care of it?"

"If it keeps makin' too much noise, yeah."

"Well then, if we're gonna be trapped again, we may as well make the best of it, right? Unless you're too busy being the good boy." Maybe it will help him relax.

He takes the jar and says, "Hell, may as well make the best of it."

A few hours later, we're sitting in the middle of the cabin and I'm teaching him how to play Never Have I Ever. I never played but I've had friends from college who did.

"First, I say somethin' that I've never done and if you have done it, you drink, and if you haven't I drink. Then, we switch."

"Where the hell you learn this game?"

"College. I never played it. I was never into the drinking games." I just wanna pass the time. "I'll start. I've never shot a crossbow. So, you would drink to that."

"Ain't much of a game." He says and takes a swig of moonshine.

"I know but I can't sit here and just drink. But that was just a warm-up. Now you go."

He bites his nails. "I don't know."

"Just say the first thing that pops into your head."

He looks at me closely. "I never been out of Georgia."

"Okay, that was good," I say lightly while I sip my drink.

"I've never been drunk and done somethin' I regretted."

He took another swig. "I've done a lot of things."

"I've never been on vacation."

"What about camping?" That counts doesn't it.

"No," he said, "that was just something I had to learn to hunt." There were still things that I didn't know about him, I guess.

"Oh. Did your dad teach you?"

"Mm-hmm."

I take a drink. "I've never been in jail."

His gaze hardens. "Is that what you think of me?"

"Uh, no. Everyone I knew was in jail for something. Mostly just being drunk."

"Drink up."

"It's your turn again." He stares at me a second before getting up.

"I gotta take a piss." And I needed to know that?

Glass shatters. I look to see Daryl had thrown his jar of shine down and was peeing by the shelf in the kitchen.

"Daryl, you need to be quiet."

Then he starts yelling. "I can't hear you! I'm takin' a piss!"

He was angry. "It's my turn, right?" He asks while buckling his belt. "I've never eaten frozen yogurt. I've never gotten anything from Santa Claus. Never been married. Never had a kid. Never left my kid when she was sick. I sure as hell never went lookin' for a drink to forget about my kid." He stops when the walker tries to get in. "Sounds like our friend out there is tryin' to call all of his buddies." He grabs his crossbow and storms out.

"Daryl, shut up." He was calling more.

"Hey, you never shot a crossbow before? I'm gonna teach you right now."

He stomps over to me and grabs my arm.

"Ow," I say.

He drags me outside. "Daryl, you need to stop."

He aims the crossbow. "Come here, dumbass." He shoots it in the chest, nailing it to a wooden pole.

"Daryl, let's go back inside."

"You wanna shoot?"

"I don't know how."

"Oh, it's easy." He says as he turns me around and pulls me right up against him with his around all the way around my shoulders. I could feel him breathing on my ear and neck. Aiming the crossbow he shoots it in the chest again.

"We can practice later." I shoved him off of me. "Stop it, Daryl." This is ridiculous.

He reloads his crossbow. "Come on, it's fun."

"Daryl!"

"Come here." He grabs me the same way again. I struggle in his grip. Another arrow in the chest.

"Just kill it!" What he's doing is disgusting.

"Come here, Pierce. Let's pull these out. Get a little more target practice." I've had enough of this. Before he can pull his bolts out, I run up and kill the walker.

"What the hell you do that for? I was havin' fun." He yelled angrily.

"No, you were being a stupid jackass. If anyone found me-"

"Don't," he interrupts. "That ain't remotely the same."

"How so? Killing them is not supposed to fun."

"What do you want from me, girl, huh?"

"I want you to stop acting like you don't give a crap about anything. Like nothin' matters. Like the people we lost don't matter. It's bullshit!"

"It that what you think?" He asked and took a step towards me. He was trying to intimidate me. Well, I won't let him.

"That's what I know."

He stepped closer. "You don't know nothin'."

"I know that you see me as another dead girl. You think I can't survive like I was before with Sam. I'm not dead. I made it. You don't get to treat me like shit because you're afraid."

"I ain't afraid of nothin'." He said viciously.

"I saw how you were with the people at the prison. You may not have liked the attention but you cared about them. I saw it. Then we lose them and God forbid you let me in."

"Too close, huh? Yeah, you know all about that. Your daughter is gone and you can't even shed a tear. All you can do is go out lookin' for hooch like some dumb college bitch."

"Go to hell. You don't get it."

"No, you don't get it! Everyone we know is dead!"

"Stop it! You don't know that!"

"Might as well, because you ain't never gonna see 'em again. You ain't never gonna see your little girl again." I felt the tears again.

I try to grab his hands to calm him down, but he jerks away. "Daryl just stop."

"No!" he screamed and turned away. "The Governor rolled right up to our gates. Maybe if I wouldn't have stopped lookin'. Maybe cause I gave up, that's on me." He blamed himself.

"Daryl." I tried to grab him again.

"No-, And your daughter. Maybe…maybe I could done something." He was crying.

I slowly walked around him. He was looking down. I took my chance and wrapped my arms around middle. He started crying harder. I could feel his head fall on my shoulder but he kept his arms at his sides.

I decided that we didn't need to talk about it anymore. I just stood there, held back my own tears, and let him cry.

It was dark now, and we were on the porch now. I was still drinking the moonshine so I was a little tippy.

"I wish I could feel like this all the time. I don't think that's a good thing." I chuckled.

Daryl is playing around with his knife. "You're lucky you're a happy drunk."

"Yeah, I'm lucky. Some people can be assholes when they drink." I smiled when he looked at me.

"Yeah, I'm a dick when I'm drunk," he gives me a small smile as he sticks his knife in the porch railing.

He looks down. "Merle had this dealer. This janky little white guy. A tweaker. One day we were over at his house watching TV. Wasn't even noon yet and we were all wasted. Merle was high. We were watchin' this show and Merle was talkin' all this dumb stuff about it. And he wouldn't let up. Merle never could. Turns out, it was the tweaker's kids' favorite show. And he never sees his kids, so he felt guilty about it of somethin'. So he punches Merle in the face. So I started hittin' the tweaker, like, hard." He makes a punching motion. "As hard as I can. Then he pulls a gun, sticks it right here." He points his finger at his temple like a gun. Why does he have to show me? "He says, 'I'm gonna kill you, bitch.' So Merle pulls his gun on him. Everyone's yellin'. I'm yellin'. I thought I was dead. Over a dumb cartoon about a talkin' dog."

"How'd you get out of it?"

"The tweaker punched me in the gut. I puked. They both started laughin' and forgot all about it." He looked up at me. "You wanna know what I was before all of this? I was just driftin' with Merle…doin' whatever he said we were gonna be doin' that day. I was nobody. Nothin'. Some redneck asshole and an even bigger asshole for a brother."

It must have been hard, talking about his brother. "You miss him, don't you?" He doesn't say anything. "I miss Sam. My husband. When you found us, I thought…I hoped that she would grow up and live her life. I thought that more people would have babies and they would grow up. We would start celebrating holidays again." I choked back tears. "How stupid is that?"

"That's how it was supposed to be."

"I'm surprised I made it this far. Hope." I scoffed. "I almost lost Sam plenty of times before because I had faith in people. Yet, still do. I want to change."

"You did," Daryl assures me.

"No, not enough. Not like you."

"I'm used to things bein' ugly. Growin' up in a place like this."

"You escaped."

"I didn't," he argued.

"You did."

"Maybe you gotta keep on remindin' me sometimes."

"No. You can't depend on anybody for anything, right?" I paused. "I'll be gone someday."

Daryl looked at me with worry. "Stop."

"I will, Daryl. You're gonna be the last of us. The last man standing." He looked heartbroken now. "You're gonna miss me when I'm gone Daryl Dixon."

"You ain't a happy drunk at all."

I smiled at that. "I am happy. Daryl, don't ever change. Don't go back. Leave it behind."

"What if you can't?"

"You have to. It will kill you. Inside."

He looks upset as he looks around. "We should go inside," he suggests.

"We should burn it down. Destroy the past."

He gets up and picks up my moonshine and walks to the door. Turning back to me, he says, "Were gonna need more booze." So, that's a yes.

I follow him in and we cover the entire cabin in moonshine.

We're a few feet away now. Daryl holds out the matches to me. "You wanna?"

"Hell, yeah." I took the matches and lit the money in Daryl's hand on fire. He threw it and we backed away some more. Within seconds the whole cabin was engorged in flames.

We were standing there watching the cabin burn. I looked at Daryl, he was enjoying this too. At that moment, my thoughts went back to Carol, what she said about Daryl caring more about me and Sam than I thought. I don't know if it was the alcohol or what but I couldn't stop myself. I grabbed both sides of Daryl's face and turned his head towards me and kiss him.

I pulled away and let go of his face almost as soon as it happens. Breathing heavily I touch my lips. I cannot believe that I just did that. I look at him. He hasn't said anything.

"Must be the moonshine." I sigh and brush it off.

I walk off into the night. He stands there a moment longer before following me.

Stupid.


	6. Gone

**Hey, guys. Here is chapter six. Two in one day, wow! If I don't keep posting like this though, I'll forget where I was going with the story. I'm sure nobody minds. Anyway, it is another short chapter, but I think you'll like it for the most part. I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to go with it, but I feel satisfied with how it turned out. Enjoy!**

 **Chapter six: Gone**

After the cabin, I asked Daryl if he could teach me how to track. I was surprised when he said he would. He's never taught anyone, so this would be a first for him. He was even letting me use the crossbow.

"Are we close?" We've been tracking this thing for thirty minutes.

Daryl is close behind me, directing me in the right direction. He was close enough were I could feel his breath on my neck. "Almost done."

Neither of us have brought up my actions at the cabin. The kiss. I guess he really believed it was the alcohol. That or Carol was wrong. He doesn't feel that way.

"How do you know?" I continue to question.

"The signs are all there. Just gotta know how to read 'em."

Lowering the crossbow, I look around. "So, what are we tracking?"

"You tell me." I give him a stern look. "You're the one who wanted to learn." He's right. Okay, Stacey, focus. Looking around the ground, I see some breakage in the leaves.

"Well, something came through here." I say pointing at the tracks. "The pattern isn't straight." I smiled. "It's a walker."

"Maybe it's a drunk." I laugh lightly and look at him. He was actually joking again.

"Well, Mr. Dixon, I'm getting pretty good at this. Pretty soon I won't need your help at all."

"Yeah, you just keep trackin'." He shooed me ahead.

I follow the trail until, sure enough, I spot a walker.

"It's got a gun. We could use that." Daryl nods.

I slowly creep towards it. This was my first time using the crossbow myself, I didn't want to miss. About halfway there, I get an agonizing pain in my left foot. I had stepped on a small trap and my heel was caught in it. To make things worse, the walker heard and was making his way over.

I aim the crossbow as best I can and end up shooting it in the neck. Daryl runs up grabbing the crossbow and hitting the walker in the head with enough for to kill it.

He franticly runs back to me to release the trap. "Can you move it?" he asks, cradling the front of it.

I wiggle it around. "Yeah, but it hurts like hell."

He helps me up and we leave to find shelter with Daryl supporting me on his shoulder.

Finally, we come through a clearing and see a funeral home. But I can't go any farther. My foot is killing me.

"Daryl. Daryl wait." He stops and releases my arm.

"You all right?" he sounded worried.

"Yeah. I just need to rest."

"All right. Hold up." He says. He secures the strap of his crossbow around his back then bends down in front of me. "Hop on."

"Are you serious?"

He looks back at me a second then bends back down. "Yeah. This is a serious piggyback. Jump up."

I smile and jump on. I can feel him struggle.

"You're heavier than you look."

I ignore his comment. "Maybe there are people there." I inquire as he takes us through the graveyard.

"Yeah. If there are, I'll handle 'em."

"There are still good people, Daryl."

"I don't think the good ones survive."

"We did." I look around and spot something. "Wait."

I hop down and star at one of the graves. 'Beloved Daughter'. All of a sudden, Daryl walks around me and lays flowers on the grave. I know he missed her, too. When he is standing beside me again, I grab his hand. Instead of pulling it away, he closes his hand around mine and strokes it with his thumb. I can tell he is slightly uncomfortable. I glance at him and smile before letting go and climbing on his back again.

We finally reach the funeral home, and Daryl bangs on the walls to make sure that no one or nothing has made it their home. I look inside.

"It's so clean." I point out. There wasn't even a speck of dirt.

"Yeah, someone's been tendin' to it. May still be around." He goes into a room. There is a body in a casket. It's a funeral home, of course there is.

We look around some more then make our way downstairs to see if we can find some medical supplies. There was another body down there.

"Let's get that ankle wrapped." Daryl looks at me when I don't say anything. I can't take my eyes off of the body. "Looks like somebody ran out of dolls to dress up."

"I guess. But whoever did this cared. They wanted them to have a funeral." We stare at each other a second before it becomes too awkward for him.

"Come on." He says bending down to fix my ankle.

After he wraps my ankle, we go back upstairs to see if we can find something to eat. I'm starving.

I check the fridge, nothing.

"Did you find anything?" Just as I asked, he opened a cabinet that was full of food. "Whoa."

"Peanut butter and jelly, diet soda, and pig's feet." Of all the things in that cabinet, that's what he notices first. "There's a white trash brunch right there."

"Well, it all looks good to me." I start grabbing a bunch of different things.

"No, hold up. Ain't a speck of dust on this."

"So?"

"That means somebody just put it here. This is someone's stash. Maybe they're still alive. All right, we'll take some of it and we'll leave the rest, all right?"

"I told you there were still good people." I say. He looks at me. Then he stuffs his fingers in his mouth full of jelly. "Ew. Gross."

"Allright, those pig's feet are mine," he claims.

Daryl secures the doors as I look around. I limp into a room with a piano. Sitting at it, I touch the keyboard. I never knew how to play but my husband did. He could play almost every instrument he could get his hands on.

Daryl clears his throat. "The place is nailed up tight." He lays down his crossbow. "The only way in is through the front door." Then he jumps in a casket.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" That's a little freaky.

"This is the comfiest bed I've had in years."

"Really?"

"I ain't kiddin'." He laid back and sighed. Glancing at me, he starts biting his nails. "Do you remember anythin'?"

I turn to him confused. "What?"

"The cabin. You remember anythin'?" Oh.

"Um, I…I remember fighting, and burnin' it down," I say smiling at the memory. The smile faded slowly as I think of what to say next. Do I tell him I remember? "And, uh, kissing you." The words slowly roll off my tongue. He keeps quiet and continues biting his nails.

After a few moments silence, I stood up and moved to the couch that held Daryl's crossbow. I figured he wasn't going to say anything more on the subject. I put the crossbow in a chair and lay down to rest.

The next morning, my ankle is hurting much worse. I'm limping my way to the kitchen when Daryl comes up behind me.

"Come on." He was being impatient.

"I'm going as fast as I can."

"Forget that." Without warning, he lifted me off of my feet and carried me bridal style into the kitchen. I was laughing the whole way. "Here you go." He set me in the chair. "Whew. All right. Let's eat."

Before we can open our food, the cans hung outside rattle.

Daryl grabs his crossbow and heads to check it out. "Stay." He commands when I try to get up. "It's just a damn dog." Really, a dog. I haven't seen one in while.

I limp my way to him but before I could see it, it was already gone. "He didn't want to come in?" I was looking forwards to seeing it.

"I told you to stay back."

"Yeah, but, Daryl, you said there was a dog." I explained excitedly.

"Maybe he'll come back around. Come on." He touched my shoulder to guide me around but instead of turning me, he held me still. I looked at his hand on my arm then at Daryl's face. He was in deep thought. What was he thinking?

"Daryl, is somethin' wrong?" This caused him to snap out of his thoughts.

"Come on. I'm starving." He continued guiding me back to the kitchen.

Later that night, as we were eating dinner, I grabbed a piece of paper and pen out of my pack. "I'm gonna leave a thank-you note."

"Why?"

"For when they come back. If they come back. Even if they're not comin' back, I still wanna say thanks."

"Maybe you don't have to. Maybe we stick around. They come back, we'll just make it work. They may be nuts, but maybe it'll be all right."

"So, you do think that people are still good. What changed your mind?"

He glanced at me before getting another spoonful of jelly. "You know."

I scooted closer to him. "What?"

He looked nervous. I just want him to express his feelings. He mumbles an "I don't know."

"Don't mumble at me." I touched his arm. "What changed your mind?"

This time when he gazed at me, I could finally see it. What Carol saw. His gaze was so intense, it was making my heart beat wildly. This time I was going to finish what I started.

I slowly moved my hand up his arm to rest on his neck right below his ear. My thumb stroked his cheek. He hasn't pulling back yet, which was good. I think. I leaned forward and stopped a few inches away to look into his eyes so I could judge his reaction. Then, surprisingly, his hand came up to my neck and pulled me the rest of the way.

It was amazing. He just pulled me into his when we hear a dog bark.

Regrettably, we pulled away and I stood up as he reached around and grabbed the pig's feet.

"I'm gonna give that mutt one more chance." I sit there as he leaves the room. It feels like I am finally healing on the inside. The only person that has been on my mind since my husband died is Samantha. I've been so afraid to move on. Now that I feel like I have, the feeling was indescribable.

"Stacey! Stacey!" I quickly grab his crossbow and run as fast as I can with my hurt ankle to the front door. He motions for it and I toss it to him. He catches it and tells me to run. I hesitate but back away so that the walkers can't see me.

They follow Daryl. "Stacey, pry open a window. Get your shit."

"I'm not leaving you." I'm not losing him too. Not when I just got him.

"Go out. Go up the road. I'll meet you there." No. Okay, calm down I told myself. I take a deep breath and do as he says. I have to trust him.

I made my way to the road as fast as I could. I can see it now. I'm limping my way there when I feel someone come up behind me. They put a napkin over my face and hold it there. The last thing I remember is Daryl calling for me.

I was gone.


	7. Glad You're Okay

**Yay, chapter seven! I realized again that I forgot the disclaimers on the last two chapters, so here it is: I own nothing relating to** _ **The Walking Dead.**_ **Enjoy!**

 **Chapter seven: Glad You're Okay**

I woke up in what looked to be a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV. What happened? The last thing I remember was Daryl calling my name but I don't know why. I know we were running from walkers. We were supposed to meet at the road. Damn it! Why can't I remember anything?

I stood up and, dragging my IV behind me, I tried to open the door. "Hey!" I banged on it. "Let me out!" I backed away when I heard voices. It sounded like they were coming from a radio.

Thinking on my feet, I take out the IV and grab the pole, prepared to fight if I had to.

The door opened and two people entered the room. A man I a doctor's outfit and a woman in a police uniform. Who are these people and where was Daryl?

"Everything is okay." The man said holding his hands up.

"Let it go. Right now." The woman commanded. I don't know why but I listened.

"I'm Dr. Steven Edwards." The man introduced. "This is Officer Dawn Lerner. How are you feeling?"

"Where am I?" I asked confused.

"Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta."

Now the question I really wanted the answer to. "How did I get here?"

"My officers found you on the side of the road surrounded by rotters." I don't remember that.

"You had a nasty wound on your ankle." The doctor spoke. "Can you tell us your name?"

"Stacey." Daryl has to be here, too. "The man I was with, is he here, too?"

"You were alone," Dawn told me. Daryl wouldn't have left me alone. "If we hadn't saved you, you'd be one of them right now. So you owe us." And there it was. That word. Owe. Everyone always wants something. "I want you on cleaning duty. But for now, you can help Dr. Edwards." She left me with the doctor.

"Come on."

He led me around the hospital showing me all of the patients. We didn't enter the rooms until we can to the last. I followed him inside.

"Couple of the officers out there were on a run about a week ago. They found two boxes of Bisquick, and a Merle Haggard tape at a truck stop, and this gentlemen under a bridge." He motioned to the man attached to a respirator. "Cardiac arrest and extreme dehydration. I tried to do what I could." Then he turns off the respirator.

"Wait, that's it?"

"If patients don't show any signs of improvement…well, Dawn calls it." Grabbing a knife off of a surgical tray, he stabs the man in the head to stop the transformation.

We wheel the gurney down the hall and stopped beside Dawn. While he was talking to her, I took the chance to really look around. I see another officer leave on of the rooms. I walk up to the open door and all that's in there is a girl. Did he just do what I think he did? She shut the door when she saw me.

"Come on, body's getting cold." Dawn tore me from my thoughts. We continued down a few more hallways before she stopped and unlocked a door for us. The doctor and I pushed the body through and were left alone.

"How many people live here?" I asked him.

"Just enough to keep us going. Some of us started here, some of us came as patients. Everyone has a job." That was what Beth used to say back at the prison. We couldn't cry because we all had jobs to do.

"Can't we bury him?"

"No, we only go out when we need to. It may be the most dignified disposal system, we work with what we have. We've managed to secure and guard the stairwells, but the windows are blown out on the ground floor." He started unhooking the man on the gurney. "Rotters find their way into the basement when they hear a noise. And if the bodies are warm, or warm enough, they clean up some of the mess. Plus," he added, "it's the fastest way down." The body was dumped into the empty elevator shaft.

Later, I was sent to the cafeteria to get his food.

When I entered, I walk up to the counter and grab a tray.

I was putting food on my tray when an officer walked up to us. Looking at me he said, "Well, you look better, much better." He had a perverted grin on his face. "We had a lead on some guns, so me and my partner were pretty far out. That's when we saw you, wriggling in the road. You don't remember me, huh?"

I gave him a blank stare. "I don't remember any of it."

"One of the rotters was eyein' your thighs when we showed up. But I got there first." I think I'd of rather face the walker. "Jacked that rotter up. I'm Gorman," he introduced himself. I stayed quiet. I didn't need to talk to this pervert for longer than necessary.

"When someone does you a favor, it's courtesy to show some appreciation." I ignored him. "Unless you want to write down everything you're takin'." I looked at him. "Everything cost something, right?"

I picked up the tray and left.

As I was walking down the hallway, I heard Dawn talking to someone. "We'll find Joan. Until then, you've got laundry duty and I want my uniform washed separately and pressed." I peeked through the blinded and saw that she was talking to a young man, couldn't be any older than Beth. He looked back at her and said sarcastically, "I know."

"Smart-ass."

I found my way to the doctor's office. He was in there flipping through a book.

"I used to feel like I was drowning in research," he said. "Now the oceans are dry and I'm suffocating in boredom."

"You're lucky," I tell him, "If you feel safe enough to be bored, you're lucky."

He pointed at the record player, "That's Junior Kimbrough. Do you like it?" I nodded.

"I can't remember the last time I heard a record, or any actual music for that matter."

"It's one of the few perks I get for being the only doctor here."

"That and whatever this is?" I set the tray of food on his desk.

"Guinea pig. Where's your food?" He asked.

"The more I take, the more I owe, right?" I turn to leave but he stops me.

"Hey. Have you ever tried guinea pig?" I shook my head. "Didn't think so. You wouldn't call it a perk. Sit down. Dawn doesn't have to know. Come on." I didn't really want to stay but I sat down anyway.

He hands me a fork with some meat on it. I took it and slowly ate it. That is disgusting. I have never tasted meat that nasty in my entire life.

"Well?" I can't talk or I'll vomit so I just shrug. He laughs. "It's good for Peru." He nods to the painting. "it's a Caravaggio. I found it on the street outside the High. Like trash. It doesn't have a place anymore. Art isn't about survival. It's about transcendence. Being more than animals. Rising above."

"We can't do that anymore?"

He looked at me. "I don't know."

"I knew someone sings. She still sings. Somewhere, I'm sure she still sings."

"We got a new one," Dawn yelled into the office. We followed her to find that some more officers brought in another survivor. Well, he was a survivor. Not so much now.

They rushed him into a room. "Found his wallet. His name is Gavin Trevitt," said the male officer that brought him in. Then the female explained how he got hurt. "He fell from a first floor apartment trying to get away from some."

The male officer whispered something to Dawn. That's when I saw her. Beth. She was alive. She spotted me too and smiled. I wanted to run to her and hug her but I knew now was not the time.

"He's lost a lot of blood and his vitals are dropping," Edwards explains. "I don't think he's gonna make it. We've already given him gas-"

Dawn interrupts, "I got this." She walked to the other side of the gurney. "You said you wanted to save people, so save him."

Edwards was at a loss. "I don't even know the extent of his injuries. Look, this one's a loser. You said you didn't want me wasting resources."

"Well today I want you to try," she argued with him.

He looked at Beth and told her to do something. I just stood back out of the way. After examining the man as much as possible, he held a key out to Beth. "Beth, I need a large hollow needle in that cabinet." Before Beth could get the key, Dawn snatched it and got the needle herself.

He stabbed the needle into the man's lung and blood came flying out. After a few seconds, the monitor's beeping slowed to normal.

Dawn watched questioningly. "Is he gonna make it?"

Edwards looked up at her. "He fell from a building, Dawn."

"Is he going to make it?"

He roughly pulled up the man's shirt. "You see these bruises? He has internal bleeding, but I need a CAT scan to know how bad. And even if I could determine that, I don't have the tools to save him. I told you this was a waste of resources."

I watched Dawn while he said this. She looked angry instead of upset, like she should have been. But instead of taking her anger out on the doctor, she whirled around and slapped Beth breaking the stitches that she had on her cheek.

"Hey!" I ran over to Beth. Dawn gave me a look that dared me to say something else. 'You'll get what's comin' to you, bitch,' I thought.

She turned back to the doctor. "Steve, try to grasp the stakes here. You," she pointed at me, "go do your job. Find something to clean."

I decide that it is best to do as she says until I know more about this place. I looked at Beth and hugged her. "We'll talk later."

A few hours later, Beth and I met in a small room. We hugged again.

"Where's Sam?" she asked me.

My chest tightened. "She was on the bus. I left for a second to find the other kids, and when I came back, the bus was leaving. With Sam on it."

"Oh. Well, we'll find her. As soon as we get out of here. Were you out there alone?"

"No. I was with Daryl. We got attacked by walkers. I was supposed to meet him by the road but I can't remember what happened." My chest tightened even more. Did he even make it out? "Beth, how did you end up here?"

"After the prison, I was runnin'. Bein' chased by walkers. They were everywhere, then finally, I couldn't run anymore. I was fightin' one in the road, then I blacked out and woke up here. Stacey, I don't know about this place. They bought in a girl that tried to escape. She got bit on her arm. She would have rather died then have it cut off. Gorman was raping her." She looked like she wanted to cry. "Gorman, he probably would have done the same to me if not for Edwards." Of course, it makes sense. Dawn is so focused on controlling the people brought in, that she fails to control her officers. Or she doesn't care to control them. I'm going with the second option. She continued, "I talked to Noah, the guy that does the laundry. He said that he's been here for a year. He thinks that they only take in those that they think are weak. Noah has a plan. We can get out of here."

Weak? If only they knew. If Noah and Beth know how to get out, then that's what we'll do. "Then let's get out of this shithole."

The next day, we had planned to escape. Beth was to get the keys from Dawn's office. Noah was acting as a chaperone to me as I scrubbed the floors. Noah, working in laundry, had gotten enough towels to get us down the elevator shaft. I made Noah go ahead of me. If anyone was getting caught it was me, not the teenagers.

Finally, it was my turn to go. I was inching my way down when I was grabbed by a walker through one of the lower floor elevator doors. I try to fight it off but I can't and end up falling all the way down to the pile of bodies that were fed to the walkers. When I landed, I fell right on a broken bone and it went right through my side.

"Son of a bitch!" I screamed.

Noah and Beth hoped down to me. Noah helped me up while Beth looked at the wound.

"Stacey, we have to take it out. We don't know if this can infect you. We can't leave it in." I nod.

She grabs it from behind and counts to three. I try to pace myself.

"…three," she says and rips out the bone.

"Fuck!" I cry. That was excruciating. They wait for me to catch my breath. "Okay. Let's go before they realize we're gone."

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah, I think so."

Releasing me, Noah took out a flashlight. We try to quietly sneak past walkers. But one managed to grab Noah from behind some pipes. We couldn't break its grip. That's when Beth took out a gun and started hitting its arm. Where the hell did she get that? When it lets go of Noah, she starts shooting. More have come thanks to the noise. She shoots them until we get to the door.

Once outside, we get blinded by the light. Noah and Beth are ahead. I can't keep up, the pain in my side was getting worse. I caught up at the fence, when they had to stop because of walkers. Noah helped me through and was now supporting my weight again. Beth looks at us. I know what she's thinking.

"Go!" she tells us. I can barely hold myself up and Noah is having a hard time holding me. But he doesn't let go. I try to get back to Beth as he drags me through the last fence. My vision was blurred now, but I could just see Beth being thrown to the ground by the officers. Just before we make it around the corner, I black out.

I woke up in an office. Scanning the room, I see Noah sitting by the window. "Hey." I sat up and immediately regretted it. I examined my wound. It looked terrible. I didn't feel hot, so I don't think I had a fever. That was good. It means that I'm not infected with the virus. But the wound is infected.

He looks at me. "How long have I been out?"

"Not long. Couple hours maybe. I searched this building for supplies already. I wanted to wait till you woke up before I tries another building."

"Noah, are we still in Atlanta?" He nodded. "Damn it. I need antibiotics. Grady probably has all the medicine that was left here."

I tried to stand but lost my balance and fell on the floor.

"Whoa, you shouldn't stand. I can go look around, see what I can find."

I think for a second. The room we were in looked in pretty good shape. Out the window was another building just like this one. I could barely make out a tent through the window. "Okay. What you're gonna do is, you're gonna go to the building across the street. It looks like someone made camp in there. They may still be there so you have to be careful. If they aren't there, they probably didn't make it. Hopefully, they'll have some supplies in that tent."

It's been awhile since Noah left. I tried to keep watch for him through the window but my eyes were too blurred to see that far away. I had done what I could for the wound. Noah found a bag of clothes, so I used a thick shirt to wrap around the wound.

I heard movement outside the door. Shit. I can't run. Looking around franticly, I see a pen and quickly grab it. Not much of a weapon, but it will have to do. I gently lower myself to the floor, hiding behind a desk.

I could hear the door open. The footsteps get louder and I try to calm my breathing. I can sense the person right around the table. I raise the pen, ready to stab whatever came at me. Then, I stopped myself as Noah came around the edge.

"Damn it, Noah! I could have killed you," I screamed at him. Dumbass. Scaring me like that.

"With a pen?" He asked giving me a goofy look. He was making fun of me when I was scared shitless.

"Go to hell." I use the desk to climb back up and move to the side of the desk. I was so dizzy. Noah tries to help but I shoo him away.

"Did you find anything?"

He hands me a bottle. Penicillin. That should work. I'll probably have to use the whole bottle before I get better, though. "I bought somethin' else, too."

I look up from the bottle expecting him to hand me something but he wasn't looking at me, he was looking at the door. I turned my head to see what he was looking at.

Standing at the door, looking as amazing as ever, was Daryl. He was staring at me. When I smiled at him, he ran at me and lifted me up into a hug. It hurt like hell, but I didn't care right now. He was alive. I was crying into the crook of his neck. He squeezed tighter.

"Ow." I couldn't stop it from leaving my mouth.

He released me and looked untied the shirt to look at the wound. "How'd this happen?"

"We were escapin' and a walker grabbed me. I fell right on a broken bone. Damn thing went right through." He handed me a bottle of water so that I could take the antibiotics. Then, without warning, Daryl picked me up bridal style.

"We got a truck outside," said Noah.

Daryl carried me all the way to the truck and set me in the middle.

We road all the way to a church. The antibiotics were already making me feel better, but they it will be weeks before I'm completely healed. When we came to a stop, I saw Rick, Michonne and Carl outside. Carl was holding Judith. She made it. That means Sam definitely could have too.

Daryl helped me out and carried me inside. When he let me down I made sure to hug everyone. Everyone but Sasha, who was angrily chopping away at a pew.

"What happened?" I asked them.

Rick was the one to answer. "Bob, he…he didn't make it. We got a lot to talk about, Stacey, but you need to rest right now." Oh. Now I felt bad for staying mad at him for so long. I look around at all of their faces. If they're here, that means that other might have made it too, right.

"Wait, what about Glenn? Maggie?" They looked at each other sadly.

"They're alive. They left with another group to Washington. They think they know how this started. And maybe how to stop it." Oh. I guess that's important.

"Was Sam with them?"

They didn't answer. "We can talk more later," Rick insisted. Michonne helped me to the next room while Daryl and Noah stayed to inform the rest on the situation. Before we cross the threshold Rick calls to me, "We're glad you're okay, Stacey."

 **Hey, guys. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I just wanted to be clear because I didn't put it in here that the reason she can't remember is a side effect of the chloroform they used to bring her in. I don't know for sure if that is a real side effect but it is in my story. I wanted to get Stacey out of Grady as soon as possible.**


	8. Never Going to End

**Hey guy! Sorry for the delay, but Christmas has been crazy. My one year old is still showing me all of her new toys. Yesterday was the first day that she had a nap since Christmas Eve, so no nap, no writing. This is all I managed to get done. It is really short, but I figured it was better than nothing. I am definitely not happy with this chapter but hopefully next one will be better. Hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing related to** _ **The Walking Dead.**_

 **Chapter eight: Never Going to End**

The next day, most of the group, including Daryl, left for Atlanta to get Beth and Carol. I begged them to let me go but everyone had insisted that I stay. So here I was, sitting on one of the pews, watching as the preacher tried to scrub away a blood stain. Carl was laying down a few of our weapon down in front of him.

"Pick one." He commanded after he was done. The preacher shook his head. "You need to learn how to defend yourself. We can teach you."

The preacher stopped what he was doing. Looking up at Carl, he asked, "Defend myself? They said they'd go." He was referring to the group from Terminus. They told me about it last night. The rest of the group had made their way there only to find that it was full of cannibals. Carol helped them escape. The survivors of Carol's attack followed them here, to the church, where they attacked Bob and threatened the rest of them. So, instead of taking their word for it, Rick and the others killed them. They would have kept coming after us, just like the Governor.

I continued watching the interaction in front of me. "They were liars and murderers," Carl told him.

"Just like us."

"We protected ourselves. They wanted us dead. You're lucky your church has lasted this long. You can't stay in one place anymore." He was right. Everywhere we went, it seemed that people were always trying to take what we had or kill us. "Not for long. And once you're out there, you're gonna find trouble you can't hide from. You need to know how to fight." Carl sure was good at pep talks. Gabriel reached for a weapon, picking up a machete. "Good choice. But you're not holding it right. You've gotta be able to drive it down 'cause sometimes their skulls aren't as soft and you need to be able-"

Gabriel stopped him. "I'm sorry," he swallow, "no. I need to lie down."

I slowly stood up and walked over to Carl. I put my hand on his shoulder. "It's okay. One day, he'll learn. Just like we did."

A couple of hours later, Father Gabriel could be heard screaming outside the front doors. Michonne handed me Judith and ran to the door with Carl. Using an ax to break the board that was holding it shut, they opened the doors. As Gabriel runs in, he is followed closely by a herd of walkers. Michonne manages to kill a few of them, but there are too many.

"The rectory, come on." Father Gabriel motioned towards the other room. Holding Judy close, I followed as quickly as possible with my stitches. "That's how I got out," Gabriel said pointed at a hole in the floor. "Crawl under to the back. Just go. Take the little one and go."

I hand Judith to Carl and he goes under first. "Wait for us when you get out," I told him. Michonne goes next.

I jump in the hole and look back at Gabriel. "It's worth it. I'm not going anywhere until you're gone." Maybe whatever he saw made him realize that the group did what they had to. I slowly crawl my way underneath the church. Michonne and Carl are at the end ready to help me up.

"I'm okay. I got it." I assure them.

Gabriel is close behind me. "I can't run anymore."

"We're not running." Says Michonne.

My stitches were really starting to hurt now. So, I take Judy from Carl as he kills the walkers that got stuck in our traps. Then, they use the few boards that were left outside to hammer the door shut.

A few minutes later, I gave Judy back to Carl and sat down on the ground with the fence as my support. Michonne was talking to Gabriel about where he went. I wasn't paying them any attention.

No one would tell me anything about Samantha or this morning. I have a feeling that I already know what they are going to say when they do tell me. But I still have hope that she is still alive. She is the only reason that I have made it this far. The sound of wood breaking broke me out of my thoughts.

The walkers were busting out of the church. I stand up getting my knife ready and get in front of Carl and Judith.

"What do we do?" Carl asked us.

Then, I heard something. The roar of an engine. Michonne and I look at each other, she heard it too. Where is it coming from? It was echoing all over the woods. Coming from our right, is someone with Glenn and Maggie driving a fire truck. He drove it right through the porch blocking the door of the church.

Michonne goes to hug Maggie. "You're back."

Just then Maggie spots me. "Stacey?" A big smile appears on her face and she crashes into to me, hugging me. "I can't believe it. Daryl said you were gone."

"I was. But now I'm back." If that even made since.

"Tara, Rosita, Abraham, this is Stacey. She was at the prison with us." I wave slight at them.

Turning to Glenn, I hug him. When we pull back, I have to ask. "Glenn, you were on the bus, right? Sam…where is Sam?"

Glenn hesitates. "Stacey, I-I got off the bus at the prison. I got off to find Maggie."

"What?" I ask with tears in my eyes.

Maggie grabs my shoulder and makes me face her. Her eyes were watery also. "You need to listen to me," she says, "When I went looking for Glenn, I thought he was still on the bus. So, me, Sasha, and Bob tracked it down." I knew where this was headed. "Stacey, when we found it, everyone on it was dead." I shook my head.

"No, no, no. No! She not!"

Keeping her hand firm on my shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

I pull out of her grip and look at Michonne and Carl. "You knew. You both knew. Everyone knew and none of you were going to tell me."

"We wanted to let you heal first," Michonne explained.

"Why!? You don't think that I can handle it." They looked ashamed. "Well, you were right. I can't." I stormed off into the woods by myself.

"Stacey! Wait!" They tried to stop me but I couldn't be around anyone right now. I had to get away.

I walked until I couldn't take the pain anymore and leaned against a tree. Throwing my head back against it, I slowly slid down and started sobbing. I pulled my knees up and put my head on them. This was it. She is gone. There is nothing left to fight for.

I don't know how long I was there, but I lift my head up when I hear leaves crunch. Looking up, I see Maggie.

"They said that Beth is still alive. You were with her after Daryl, right? I wanna be there when they bring her out." She paused. "I think she would like you there, too."

"I don't really have anything else to do." I stood up. "No one to look after." I move around her and make my way back with her following me. Beth would want me there. At least she didn't keep anything from me.

When I reached the church, I ignored everyone and climbed in the back of the firetruck and sat down beside another new member I'm guessing.

We drove all the way to Grady Memorial. When we got there, everyone but Carl and Judy got out. I was beside Maggie as we made our way to the front of the hospital shooting at any dead that got in our way.

Before we reached the doors, Rick and the group come out. Something was wrong, they didn't look as happy as they should. I see Carol and give her a teary-eyed smile. She was okay.

Then, I saw him. Daryl, with a very dead Beth in his arms. Maggie fell to the ground screaming and crying for her sister. I can't take this anymore. I just found out about Sam, now Beth. This is never going to end.


End file.
